


Should we kill him?

by rarepairqueen



Category: Green Day, Mentions of Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance
Genre: Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen, Background Character Death, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Mentions of Rape, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-22
Updated: 2014-04-01
Packaged: 2018-01-16 15:42:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 17
Words: 56,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1352854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rarepairqueen/pseuds/rarepairqueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gerard, Mikey, Ray and Bob have been thrown into the lives of hitmen. Killing people for profit at the hands of a higher power. With no way out of contract killings, what'll happen when they have to kill a misunderstood school boy by the name of Frank?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> 3 years worth of work has gone into this. I had no idea what I was doing plot-wise until a few pages in, the idea came to me whilst watching a Criminal Minds episodes (S5x23 and S6x01), then I kinda made it up as I went along.   
> I've fixed as many plot holes as possible but there might still be some that have escaped my proofread.   
> Please excuse any OOC occurrences that happen!  
> As I didn't originally intend to upload this fic I never put it into chapters so when I did upload it I hastily (and regrettably) just chopped it into reasonablly sized chunks so I apologise - maybe one day I'll re-edit it all but today is not that day...

 

“Should we kill him?” Mikey asked me. I thought about this question, sure we _could_ kill him but at the same time it would be too risky to get away in time – especially as we were in the middle of New York city.

“Nah…besides, we shouldn’t push it too far so soon.” I sighed, leaning back in the passenger seat of the sleek black van. My brother Mikey sat in the driver’s seat, our friends Ray and Bob sat in the back, we were in the middle of a routine task of ours, I wouldn’t say we were assassins…more licensed to kill.

“Gee you never stray from the task do you?” he sighed, rolling his eyes as he watched the young man he had been following disappear into the shadows.

“No, because if we did then we’d be out of work and probably in jail dingus.”

We fell silent in the van, all we had to do was fatally wound another cheating boyfriend. It’s a messy and sinful job but we accidentally started this so now we’re rolling with it, it gives us money to live off and a slightly different lifestyle.

“Is that him?” Ray asked, pointing towards a drunk individual who was stumbling along the road out of the shadows with a prostitute clinging to his arm. I glanced to the picture we had been given and nodded.

“Get the gun and get the camera.” I murmured, my eyes trained on the couple. Standard protocol for our jobs meant simply shooting the victim and then taking a photo for evidence so we could get paid, then we’d simply disappear off to a different city for the next job, we rarely hung around afterwards.

Bob clicked open a flight case and started assembling a small automatic handgun, Ray got himself prepared to fend off the ‘lady-friend’ whilst I would take the evidential picture, Mikey would wait for the deed to be done and then would drive us towards the rendezvous with the client before high-tailing it out of the state.

“Ready?” I asked as the couple stumbled closer to the van.

“Yup.” Bob replied. Ray nodded.

“Is there anyone else around Mikey?”

“Nope.” My brother replied after glancing in the mirrors. “Hurry up though.”

We waited until they were alongside the van, I slid the side door open and Ray jumped out, scaring both of them and pushing the girl against the wall of the warehouse we were parked next to. Bob simply shot the guy in the head, he collapsed to the ground and a puddle of blood was forming as I snapped the required photo.

“Right we’re done.” I declared, jumping back in the van, Bob and Ray followed suit, the van door slid shut as Mikey slammed the accelerator down, leaving the girl in hysterics and a nearly-dead victim.

We met with the crazed girlfriend, she was satisfied with the result, she paid us well and we got our asses out of the state. The dark highways were familiar to us now, we shared them with the midnight truckers and boy racers.

“Where are we headed Mikes?”  I asked.

“New Jersey.” He muttered. “Should be there by morning.”

I nodded and glanced at my phone, it was two am, we were all tired after being up for nearly two days straight. When we get a job we survey the victim, we learn their routine and then camp out in a blind spot until we can simply pick them off, this last one meant we had to stay in the van for two days and drive around a warehouse district waiting for the victim to go to a certain club.

Ray and Bob started discussing a film they’ve both wanted to see for a while as we shot down the highway, I turned on the radio and Mikey absentmindedly started humming along to it when a news announcement interrupted the cheesy tunes;

“ _Police are searching for a gang who shot dead a young man in a warehouse district of NYC tonight, the attack was reported a few minutes ago, the gang got away in a black van with tinted windows, there are no other visual sightings of the gang._ ”

“Damn, we gotta repaint the fucking van again.” I groaned.

“At least no-one saw you, remember when you had to dye your hair platinum white because someone saw you?” Mikey reminded me with a smirk.

“Yeah…I think next time I’ll go red.” I mused.

“Well at least we’re gonna be in New Jersey by sunrise…” Ray said hopefully.

“Cool, do we actually have any jobs there?” Bob asked.

“…there’s one pending…” Mikey murmured, overtaking a heavy-haulage truck. “I need to make a call when we get there.”

 

* **Later on that day** *

 

“Gee, wake up.” Mikey’s voice bluntly disturbed my sleep.

“No…no…” I mumbled, twisting against my seatbelt. “Not now.”

“Gee. Get up.”

I opened my eyes slowly, the harsh morning sunlight blinded me temporarily as my brother’s face focused into view. “Meh…what?”

“We’re at a gas station, Ray and Bob are getting supplies, I’m going to make the call, can you fill up the van?”

I nodded and got out, we were on the outskirts of a city, our home city, well as close to home as we could get. I picked up the gas dispenser and started filling the van up with the potent substance, I wrinkled my nose as I wondered if they were getting me some cigarettes. Mikey was pacing back and forth whilst talking on a disposable phone to our client, he seemed more or less calm as usual, my brother and I haven’t had the best of lives, our parents split up when we were young and we struggled through highschool being repeatedly bullied, we dropped out before graduating, Ray and Bob were in similar situations, we decided to pack up and get away from it all, along the way we ended up becoming hitmen and now we kill for cash. Not exactly the most glamorous of jobs but it does pay well.

“So, any idea who we’re picking off now?” Ray asked as him and Bob returned with two bags of supplies; food rations mainly, cigarettes, cheap booze, very few toiletries and the odd adult magazine.

“Nope, Mikey handles that, I just organise the actual job.” I reply, even though we’ve been doing this for the past three years it can be unclear just _what_ we’re doing half the time.

“Speak of the devil.” Bob remarked as Mikey returned.

“Right, we’ve got another deranged student who wants pay back.” He sighed, we all hated these kind of jobs, we actually meet up with our clients and fully discuss the unfortunate victim, we don’t take these ones lightly.

“Funnily enough it’s someone who attends our own highschool.” Mikey added as he got back into the driver’s seat.

“What…” I asked, sliding in the seat next to him. “Who?”

“I don’t know, all I have is the rendezvous point, now hurry up we only have half an hour to get there and traffic will be terrible.” Ray and Bob shrugged and got back into the van. We drove to a coffee shop just two blocks away from the school, I got out with Mikey – we left Ray and Bob in the van and entered the haven for coffee-lovers.

A short boy came up to us, obviously recognising us somehow, I guessed Mikey had given him a rough description of us to go on, he gestured for us to follow him to a table near the back of the shop. Mikey ordered us both a coffee before joining us, getting a notepad out of his pocket and presenting me with it.

“So, you’re the guys I hired?” the kid asked, his eyes shifting from me to Mikey and back again.

“Yep, Gerard and Mikey.” I said, using our real names could be risky here but as hardly anyone knew what we did anyway it wasn’t such a problem. “We have two other guys who are sat in our van.”

“I see…so I guess you’ll wanna know who you’re after.” He whispered.

We both nodded, the kid pushed forward a photo from up his jacket sleeve, the boy in the photo had short black hair stuck up with gel, his lip was pierced and his eyes were glaring at the photographer. “Frank.”

I felt as if I had seen this kid before but couldn’t quite put my finger on it, I looked to Mikey who seemed vaguely interested, if that was even possible.

“How much you paying us?” my brother asked, slipping the photo into his pocket as the barista delivered our coffees.

“…depends how gruesomely you do it…the bloodier it is the more you get paid.” This kid was a psycho. “Single slug will get you $1,000, stab wound; $1,250 and so on.”

I was somewhat shocked, this kid was like….fourteen and he wanted this senior to be murdered and was willing to pay top dollar for it.

“…what did this guy do to you to deserve this kind of punishment?”

The kid looked uncomfortable for a few moments before leaning over the table. “…he…stole my girlfriend…” he whispered.

So that was it, revenge for relationship issues. Can’t say I’m not surprised, but murder isn’t exactly the usual payback.

Mikey nodded in acceptance before I could say anything. “Well where is he now?”

“…class, he’ll be out at lunch.”

With that Mikey got up and left the coffee shop, as far as the hierarchy goes in this group, I may the vocal one but he’s definitely the dominant force, I nodded at our newest client and followed my younger brother, a little confused as to _why_ we were going through with this one.

 

~ ******* ~

 

“So…did you recognise the victim?” I asked as we stood across the street from the main gate of the highschool.

“…kinda…like…as if from a dream…” Mikey replied thoughtfully. Ray and Bob were sat in the van a couple of streets away from us waiting for us to call to be picked up.

“mmm…I think the kid’s reasoning for wanting Frank killed is a little shallow.” I observed, the lunchtime bell just rang so students started filing out of the building, we scanned the crowd quickly, looking for our next victim.

“Ah well, we get paid, we live, eventually we can stop this…maybe find a way out of this nightmare.”

“…it is kinda fun though…” I confessed. “I mean in a weird way.”

“Yeah…” The students were coming thick and fast now, although none of them looked like our victim.

We waited for a while, the students thinned out, we hadn’t spotted Frank yet, Ray had called several times telling us that they hadn’t had any luck either. Mikey was in the middle of debating whether to quit for now or not when I saw him, a short, scruffy teenage boy slowly making his way towards the gate.

“Mikey, got him.” I muttered as I watched the boy walk down the street towards a group of housing. We followed at a distance, trying not to spook him but it was a little difficult to seem innocent as we were walking further and further out of town. He kept glancing back, we did our best to hide or look uninterested but as far as acting goes we’re both pretty crap.

After a few more minutes of this the kid just started running, I looked to Mikey who seemed as bewildered as I did before he started walking faster, not jogging or running, just walking a little faster. I fought to keep up with him, the years of smoking haven’t exactly helped my health. Frank darted down an alleyway, I could tell Mikey was trying to work out whether we should follow him or not, following him would probably arouse suspicion, not following him means we’d lose possible stake-out sites.

“Mikey…” I panted. “Let him go…I’m too tired…”

“…fine. I’ll call Ray and get us picked up.”

 

**~***~**

Ray and Bob eventually found us, apparently – and I don’t think I want to know _how_ – they found more out about this Frank kid. He’s your typical outcast in school, which didn’t make sense as to _how_ he managed to steal someone’s girlfriend if he was such a loner, he kept to himself most of the time, hardly interacted with anyone and was apparently a ‘troubled soul’.

“So…in general…he’s Gerard?” Mikey asked as we sat inside the van cruising along the highway towards another service station.

“Yeah…just not as artistic.” Ray sighed.

“So why the fuck does someone want him dead this badly?” I demanded.

“Dunno…I could try pressing the client some more, maybe we can convince him to call it off. I don’t really wanna kill someone who’s only a year younger than me.” Mikey answered, rubbing his eyes underneath his glasses.

I nodded, it’s not that we were disrespecting the clients wishes…but killing a teenager was a little extreme, especially over a girl, I didn’t pretend to understand most of the reasoning behind our jobs but this one bugged me. What if it had been Mikey who was chosen seemingly at random to be killed? I shivered, I didn’t want to consider that.

The radio droned on in the background, short little segments of pointless news we didn’t care about, music that filled the silence between us, don’t get me wrong; we enjoyed each-others company but after so many trips to take someone’s life you start to drift into your own thoughts more often than talking. We all had our own ways of dealing with the emotions that our ‘job’ gives us, I stopped feeling guilty long ago after a case went astray and the target nearly killed Ray.

“Okay, I’m going to call the client and try to reason with him. Just…I don’t know…” Mikey sighed as we pulled into a small layby.

We all nodded at my younger brother, times were stressful, it was getting close to the time of year when our parents split up and we both knew it. Ray and Bob would try and be supportive but our clients were known for being quite…bitchy…and when both of us are stressed things get cold in the van.

“So what do _you_ guys think about this one?”  I asked, curious about their thoughts on such a young target.

“I…I don’t know…I mean yeah he is young and I’d rather not do it but we don’t really have a choice, we have to take whatever jobs are given.” Bob replied, looking to Ray.

“…I really don’t wanna do this one Gee. I just can’t…he reminds me too much of Mikey and you know I can’t do that..” he pleaded.

“I know Ray…I know…” I sighed. “But if Mikey can’t convince this kid otherwise then we won’t be able to do much. If we don’t get him he’ll get picked off by some other guy.”

It was a hard pill to swallow. This was just as bad as when we had to take the life of a girl who had cheated on her husband and stolen all his money, I thought that night would never end as we were watching her struggle against Bob’s vice-like grip on her throat – I hate it when we get specific orders on how to kill them - until she led lifeless on the pavement.

I closed my eyes, relaxing slightly as the other two began half-heartedly discussing who’s turn it was to clean the gun after the last kill, I almost didn’t hear Mikey re-enter the van, muttering under his breath about ‘the despicable human race’.

“Honestly he’s just a jealous little-”

“Mikes?” I asked.

“Yeah?”

“What did he say?”

The van fell silent, almost as if we knew what the answer would be. “…he said that if we don’t do it then he’ll find someone else who’ll do it for half the price.”

That was it then. We had to do it, we can’t lose out to our competitors, we have to kill Frank. I could feel the ripple of frustration spread over us.

“He also said that it wasn’t just a case of the girl, there were…other things, things he wasn’t specific about, but apparently he’s not the only one out for Frank’s blood.”

My eyes must’ve widened slightly as Mikey continued; “So…what should we do? Are we gonna do it or what?”

I made a non-committal grunt as I got out the van to get some air, the air was fresh as the day was slowly edging its way towards dusk, I pulled a cigarette out of my pocket and lit it, inhaling on it as I brought it up to my lips. I was joined by Ray, who whilst he didn’t smoke certainly wasn’t against the periodic stops for me and Bob to have one, he sighed heavily as we stood watching the sun lower in the sky.

“What _are_ we going to do Gerard?” he asked.

“I dunno Ray…I don’t like the idea of letting him get picked off by someone else…but I don’t want to kill him over something so…yeah…”

“…there’s nothing else we could do?”

“…well unless you are suggesting we kidnap him, undermine our client and attempt to get him to join us then no.”

Silence fell between us, I hadn’t even realised what I had said until Ray replied. “Can we do that?”

“…uh…well….” I stuttered, totally unprepared for him to ask that. “I…uh. It would have to be a group decision…I mean Mikey and Bob might not want to take the risk, plus we’d have to catch Frank and explain everything to him and it might not go exactly to plan…”

“I think it’s worth talking to them about.” Ray replied.

I sighed, well now I had done it.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**~***~**

“You’re suggesting what?!” Mikey exploded when I told him my vague idea to avoid any unreasonable bloodshed.

“To simply warn Frank.” I repeated.

“By kidnapping him?!”

“Well how else is he going to know we’re serious?”

“We could just walk away unscathed by this and pick up another job, there’s one in Texas that’s pretty standard.” Mikey rambled, I could see it in his eyes that he badly wanted to save Frank though, even if he hadn’t said anything about him I could tell his conscience was gnawing away at him.

“But Mikey…we _know_ about this…we know Frank is a target…we can’t just walk away now.” Bob muttered. “Think about it, he’s only a year younger than you, if you didn’t have us then you’d be pretty easy to pick off – no offence – think about how he’s young so he’ll make mistakes and not realise how big a mistake he’s made until it’s too late.”

We all stared at Bob, sometimes he came out with some weird statements, and very thought-provoking ones at that.

“He’s right Mikes…” Ray sighed. “I can’t in good conscience do this, at least let us try and talk to him.”

As I said, I may be the older and more vocal brother but Mikey definitely runs this show, he’s the one who decides what jobs we take and where we go, he’s the one who makes that final call. He chewed his lip for a few moments, his hands gripping the steering wheel of the van as he stared out the windshield at the setting sun. He grunted and turned on the engine, driving us back towards the neighbourhood we saw Frank in earlier that day. None of us said anything, we decided to let him take us where he wanted and say nothing to annoy him, Mikey gets annoyed easily, _really_ easily.

We ended up parked on the side of a street of houses, it was getting on for six now but there were still kids outside in the fading sunlight. I bit the bullet and asked where we were.

“This is Frank’s street, I don’t know which house he lives in and I doubt he’ll be out anyway.”

I nodded. “So we’re just going to talk to him then?” I asked, watching my brother for any sign of annoyance.

“Yep…if he’s scared then we’ll try and take him with us to Texas.”

“Wait what?!”

“Texas Gerard, our next job. I’ll call our client and tell them we pull out, we’ll take Frank with us and be done with it.”

“Suppose he doesn’t actually want to come with us?”

“Well that’s his choice ain’t it?”

“Yeah but-”

“Gerard, _you_ were the one who suggested this in the first place. If you’re having second thoughts it’s not too late to go ahead with it. I don’t wanna kill this kid either but I can deal with my emotions if we do have to, but can you?”

I said nothing in reply. Ray and Bob both started shuffling awkwardly in the back of the van, trying not to knock any flight-cases over, I stared out the windshield at the road in front of us. We waited, unsure of where Frank could possibly come out, after what seemed like forever Mikey sighed loudly.

“I have a better idea, we’ll abduct him on his way to school…or we could just go in and get him.”

That was a more attractive idea, just walk into our old high school and calmly bring him out to the van…and calmly kidnap him after telling him that he’s being hunted.

“I like that idea.” Ray said before I could. “It’s less drastic.”

“What going in and getting him?”

“Yeah...but…only you and Gerard could go in…Bob and I look too old now.”

“…do we still have our old uniforms?” Mikey asked me, as if I would know. I shrugged, why did it matter?

“Would mom still have them?”

“I don’t know, I don’t really wanna go back there…she hates me…”

“Mom doesn’t hate you Gerard. She simply doesn’t like the fact that you won’t be giving her any grandkids.” Mikey sighed. “And the same with me.” It was a sore point with our mother, both her sons were gay and weren’t about to force themselves into having girlfriends just to give her grandkids. When I told her she screamed at me for ages before locking me out the house, I crashed round Ray’s that night. A few weeks later Mikey came out to her too, she was more accepting to him like she always has been but she still gave him the cold shoulder, two months later we both left home.

“You go, I’ll wait in the van.” I said, folding my arms across my chest.

“No Gerard you’re coming too, if you want to help Frank then you arecoming with me.”

“Yeah but you know she’s going to ask questions, both her sons went missing overnight with only a hastily scribbled note explaining that we had to get out of New Jersey, it’s going to be so fucking awkward.” I complained.

“Gerard…” Mikey warned. “Seriously. The longer it takes the longer Frank’s in danger.”

“Why do you suddenly care a lot about him?” I asked, changing the direction of the conversation.

“…he’s nearly the same age as me Gee…he didn’t know that what he did would lead to this.” He muttered, turning on the engine and started slowly driving us towards our childhood home. “I kinda…I don’t know…let’s just try and get to him before someone else does.”

I nodded reluctantly as we drew nearer to our home, I cast worried glances to Ray and Bob who’d stay in the van whilst we acquire the uniforms, god knows what our mother is going to say when we not only show up after three years of being missing asking for our old uniforms but try to leave as quickly as we arrived.

 

~ ******* ~

“Mikey this isn’t a good idea…” I whimpered as we stood at the door, we had both lost our house keys long ago so we were facing the awkward wait for our mother to answer the door.

“Gerard seriously, Frank’s life depends on us.”

I really don’t know why Mikey suddenly cared so much about this kid, we’ve seen him once and hardly knew anything about him. My thoughts were quickly pushed aside when I was greeted by a middle aged woman with bright blonde hair, she looked from me to Mikey and back again before uttering; “…boys…you’re home?”

“Yeah mom…but we just need something…” Mikey mumbled. “It’ll only take a few moments…”

I could see the heartbreak on her face as she processed this, we were literally only going to be here for ten minutes, we weren’t ‘coming home’ as such. She nodded though and let us in, the house hadn’t changed much, the hallway had been repainted, the lounge furniture replaced with newer material, I didn’t go into the kitchen as Mikey dragged me upstairs to where our room was. It was in the same state we left it on that night three years ago; clothes all over the floor, misfits posters on the wall, unmade beds, textbooks and CDs littering the desk in the corner, even our Xbox was still plugged in.

“God Mikes…” I sighed, kicking aside a pair of jeans that could’ve belonged to either of us. “It’s so weird being back here…”

“I know Gee…but let’s just get what we came for and collect Frank.” Mikey said examining the clothing on the floor. “Try not to dwell on anything too much.”

I couldn’t help it, the last time I was in this room was the day we left, we packed the necessities and nothing else, leaving behind any mementos of home, any luxuries, anything that wasn’t needed. I found my old sketchbook, the dreams and ideas my teenage self had drawn onto paper, as I flicked through it I was reminded of my own suffering in high school, the torture I was put through, the dark emotions that plagued my every nightmare.

“Gee, I got them…” Mikey mumbled, pulling me from my reminiscing. “Come on, let’s go crash in a parking lot.”

“Um…could we stay here? Just for tonight? I mean…”

My brother blinked at me a few times before staring at the floor, I thought he was crying when he finally replied. “What about the others?”

“They can stay in the guest room…if mom will let them…”

We stood in silence, I took the bundle of clothing from Mikey’s hands, our uniform was always too big for us so there was a small chance we wouldn’t look too out of place, and alterations would have to be made though.

“I’ll go ask mom then…wish me luck.”

I nodded and attempted to smile reassuringly. I decided to fold up the uniforms whilst Mikey was gone, I also called Ray and Bob to inform them of our current plan, they seemed relatively okay with the idea of staying here overnight, then again it wasn’t them who our mother hated, it was us. I sighed and went back to my sketchbook, the drawings were good, I hardly had the time or the inspiration to draw these days, and even if I did I didn’t have anything to draw on or with anyway. From downstairs came the raised shriek of my mother, she obviously wasn’t taking this too easily, I heard Mikey stating things, not aggressively, just firmly, all went quiet suddenly before he returned.

“She wants to talk to both of us first…” he muttered.

“…okay.” I replied, putting my sketchbook down again and following my brother downstairs to the lounge, my mother was sat in an armchair and we both sat on the couch, her face was stern and unyielding.

“So…boys…” she murmured. “What brings you home?”

We looked to each other, we couldn’t tell her the real reason…we just couldn’t do that to her. I tried to avoid her gaze but it was near impossible, Mikey started muttering things until he finally spoke up; “We were just in the area doing a bit of work…thought we’d drop by…”

“What kind of work?”

I mentally screamed.

“…nothing much, volunteering mainly.”

It amazed me how easily he could lie to her, then again as far as I knew he wasn’t her ‘little angel’ anymore so he had no reason to stay truthful.

“…I see. So what did you need to collect hun?” her voice was softening.

“Just a few little things that we missed, we’re heading to Texas once we pick up a friend of ours…which…we were wondering if we could possibly stay here tonight?”

I was pretty sure that she’d say no, or she’d ask me some awkward question, she’d ask about Frank and why we were going to Texas. She didn’t, she actually said yes, she even agreed to have Ray and Bob stay too. I was confused.

Once we got them both upstairs Mikey and I tried on our old uniforms to see if they still fitted, they were a little snug but comfortable enough for a simple task of getting hold of Frank.

Except it wasn’t an easy task.

We failed to remember that all the teachers were aware that we dropped out, so wherever we walked we got stopped by teachers enquiring as to why we were back in high school. It was annoying. When we finally got away from them we started looking for Frank, this proved to be difficult as he was a loner and therefore probably wouldn’t stay in the same place for long.

“Why are we doing this again Gee?” Mikey asked, sticking close to my side.

“Something about a guilty conscience.” I muttered back as we rounded the corner coming face-to-face with Frank. His eyes widened as he recognised us and bolted back down the corridor.

“God damn it.” Mikey hissed as he sprang after him, I followed suit, running was never my strong point though and soon was a leaning against the wall of the corridor, Mikey and Frank nowhere in sight. I scrambled with my phone and hastily texted Ray, keeping him up to date with the current situation, whilst slowly making my way to the staircase where I heard them go before I was unable to follow them.

“Mikey?” I called as I ascended the stairs.

“Hurry up Gee!” my brother’s grunt replied, he had Frank pinned against the wall somehow, he was muttering swears and threats as Mikey held him there, unforgiving.

“Trust me kid.” I said to Frank. “You’ll thank us later.”

“Not fucking likely you bastards, you were following me yesterday weren’t you?” he snarled. Now I was actually face-to-face with him properly I noticed he had a nose piercing as well as a lip one, his eyes were dark and intimidating…then again he wasn’t exactly ecstatic about being pinned against a wall.

“You’ll thank us later when you realise what we’re doing for you.” Mikey replied, dragging the smaller boy away from the wall but keeping his arms locked behind his back.

“Fuck that, fuck you!” Frank shouted, he was really not happy about this.

“Shut it. Seriously, we could actually kill you right here and right now but we’re not going to because we’re having second thoughts. However there is someone out there willing to pay for your death.” I briefly explained. Frank didn’t seem fazed, if he was anything like me then I couldn’t blame him, people wanted me dead everyday. “Now you’re coming with us and you’re going to listen okay?” I said, taking his jaw firmly in my hand so he looked me in the eye. “And you’re not going to struggle or protest okay?”

“Fine.” He stated. “But you better be fucking serious you bastard.”

I sighed and texted Bob to collect us outside the school. This was going to be harder than I thought, especially when you’re trying to man-handle a teenage boy out of your own high school without being spotted. Then again bullying was a common problem in this school so no-one really batted an eyelid, Frank struggled every now and then but Mikey held on relentlessly, snarling threats in his ear to get him to stop resisting, I simply walked in front clearing the way for them. We were nearly at the door that would take us to the parking lot where Bob and Ray would be waiting when two jocks stood in front of us.

“And just where do you two think you’re taking our punching bag?” they remarked.

“Outside to beat him up.” Mikey replied with ease, I could almost sense Frank’s slight panic and confusion at this.

“Why?”

“Personal matter boys, now do you mind? We haven’t got a lot of time.” I added, instantly regretting it when I saw their fists clench.

“Can’t we assist you?” one of them asked with a smirk, it wasn’t really a question as such…more of a statement.

“As much as we’d love you too it really is a personal matter.” Mikey answered, shifting Frank forward.

They grunted before moving away, I sighed with relief as I pushed the door open, thankfully Ray and Bob were waiting for us already and it took only seconds for all of us to bundle into the van, with Bob driving us away from the school and the rest of us in the back. Once we were far enough away he pulled over to join us, we then started to explain to Frank what was going on.

“Okay, Frank I’m going to be blunt here.” I said. “We’ve been hired to kill you.”

His eyes widened, other than that he showed no emotion, probably too stubborn to show any fear or anxiety.

“But we’re not going to kill you.” I added. “However…we can’t simply let you go because whoever wants you dead is willing to pay someone else to do it instead.”

“So?” He muttered. “Why does it matter to you if you’re not going to kill me?”

I didn’t know why it mattered, I looked to Mikey and then to Ray and Bob, we actually hadn’t thought about why it mattered to us really other than him being a year younger than Mikey.

“Because…the reason we were given for your death was because you stole someone’s girlfriend.” Mikey replied eventually. “And we personally can’t see why we should kill you for something so…childish but our client is adamant that you must die for it.”

Frank scoffed. “Oh I know exactly who this is then, it’s Kyle. He’s such an asshole, I never stole his girlfriend, she left him and then we were seen talking a few hours later. The entire thing has been a product of the rumour mill, the entire football team hates me now because of that ass.”

“So…you’re not at fault then?” Ray asked.

“Well…not in this particular case.”

“Explain. Now.” I demanded.

“I’ve been blamed for all sorts of shit these past few years.” Frank replied, his eyes becoming dark and predatory. “You don’t know what it’s like, everyone blames everything on me because I’m the easiest to beat up.”

Something inside me snapped, mentally. This kid…he was a younger version of me, Mikey too. I sighed heavily, rubbing my temples in an attempt to stay calm. I looked to Mikey; he was staring fixatedly at the van’s flooring, Ray and Bob just sat in silence looking for me to reply.

“Listen Frank, regardless of what you’ve been put through; tell us the truth; is there any other reason why this Kyle person would want to kill you?”

“…there was this one time when his clothes went missing during phys ed…I didn’t do it but someone told him that I had…he ended up walking through the building in just a towel because I didn’t know where his clothes were and no-one else was telling him…so you could say he might be still annoyed about that.”

“Did that happen before or after his girlfriend left him?” Ray asked.

“…I think it happened the day after…I don’t know okay?!”

“…fine. Well we’re going to give you a choice now Frank.” Mikey interrupted “We’re leaving for Texas in a few days, if you want to stay alive come with us, if you want to take your chances here with psycho Kyle then don’t.”

“Mikes…” I said, he was taking things too quickly.

“Wait…you’re asking me to come with you? Who are you people anyway?” Frank demanded, his confusion and anger showing on his face.

“Frank we’re hitmen. Hence us being hired to kill you, but we don’t want to kill you.”

“Hit…men…as in killing for money?”

“Duh…” Mikey muttered. “So, basically, like I said earlier; if we don’t do something about you then Kyle’s hiring someone who will. The only way you can guarantee staying alive is to come with us.”

The van fell into silence, it was uncomfortable. Frank was glaring at the floor in thought, Mikey had settled for examining his phone whilst Bob and Ray raised their eyebrows at each other. After what seemed like forever Frank eventually spoke up. “So if I do come with you guys…what will I do? Will I have to become one of you? Will I ever be able to come home?”

Once again we had failed to think this through properly. I gestured for Mikey to reply but he didn’t seem to notice, Ray shrugged, as did Bob so I had to come up with a vague answer that I hoped would satisfy him.

“Uh…well we don’t really know…this’ll be the first time we kidnap the person we’re meant to kill so….I guess for the short term we’ll have to stay clear of this state, as for what you’ll do well you don’t _have_ to become a hitman if you don’t want to, but we don’t exactly earn enough to live in luxury as it is.”

He nodded. “Suppose I did say yes…would we just leave now? Would I have a chance to say goodbye to my mom?”

“Of course you can, you might be gone for quite a while…you can’t just leave like that…” Ray replied quickly. “But we’d have to leave sooner rather than later.”

“C-Can I just have a few minutes to think about it alone?”

I nodded and ushered everyone out the van, leaving Frank alone with himself to decide on his future, if he did come with us we’d have to figure out what to do with him – whether to get him to help us kill people or whether to just use him as an errand boy, we could drop him off with the only other person who knows about what we do until it’s safe for him to return…

“Gee, do you think we’re doing the right thing?” Mikey asked me as we stood a few feet away from the van. “I mean, taking him with us and drawing him into our chaotic lives…”

“It’s either that or letting him get killed.”

“But we could report it to the police…”

“And tell them what Mikey? That we were hired to kill Frank? Imagine the questions! They’d link us to so many unsolved murder cases it would be ridiculous.”

“True…”

“We’ll sort it out soon, I promise.” I said, hugging my younger brother, normally he’d resist and pull away but he wrapped his arms around me. It had been a while since we were able to be brotherly towards each other.

“Don’t break your promise this time Gee…” he whimpered. “Remember what happened last time.”

“I know…I’m sorry…I won’t do it again.” I replied,

“Guys, Frank said he’s decided.” Bob called from the van’s door. I parted from my brother and we approached the van, Frank looked as if he had been crying, once we were all present again I asked the inevitable question.

“So, do you want to come with us?”

“…yeah.” He grunted. “But I want to swing by my place and pack some stuff if that’s okay…and…say goodbye to my mom...”

I nodded, Bob and Ray sat up front whilst Mikey and I sat with Frank and thought of a believable excuse to tell Frank’s mom as to why she wasn’t going to see her son for the best part of six months at least. Eventually we decided on a student exchange program, it was really the best we could come up with.

 


	3. Chapter 3

**~***~**

 

“So…yeah…bye mom...” Frank murmured as Ray put his case into the van. I never wanted to repeat the last hour sat in Frank’s home trying to convince his mother that we _were_ from his school and that is was a completely legal thing…it wasn’t pleasant. Although his mom wasn’t that hung up about it, she only questioned the fact that we didn’t know where we were going.

“Bye son….keep in contact…and have fun!” his mom replied, pulling him into a tight hug.

After pulling him into the back of the van with me and Mikey, Bob started driving us towards Texas, there was still one thing we had to do before we could put all of this behind us for now though; call Kyle.

“Can’t we just call him tomorrow?” Frank asked. “I mean…you guys take longer than two days to kill someone right?”

I sighed, it hadn’t occurred to me that we’d have to explain every action and decision to Frank. “It can take nearly a week sometimes but this one would’ve been a simple case of jumping you in an alleyway and murdering you outright.”

“Oh...I see…” Frank gulped, clearly he was going to need some time to adjust to this way of life.

“Don’t worry, we’ll call him once we’re far enough away from here to get away without a trace.” Mikey assured him.

We were on the main highway out of town now, I wasn’t sure how long it would take to get to Texas, nor how Frank will react when he has to watch us kill someone, but we had to take things one step at a time.

“Hello?” Mikey asked the receiver of this phone, he was now calling Kyle obviously. “Yeah um we’re gonna have to turn this one down…something’s come up and we can’t finish this one…no he doesn’t know as far as we know so whoever you hire should have a good shot at surprising him.”

I could hear sharp insults flying down the phone at him, I could almost see Mikey wincing as the insults kept coming. “I know it’s a pain but we….yes…yes but…okay.” He ended the call and sighed

“Well?” Frank asked

“He’s not happy but he’s going to find someone else to do the job.”

“So I’m in the clear?”

“…yes…but it means you can’t come back here for a few months…they’ll be searching for you.”

Frank sighed and leaned back against the wall of the van, closing his eyes in the process. It wasn’t until this moment that he looked somewhat peaceful and dare I say it…a little attractive?

“Gerard, are we stopping in this state tonight or are we heading straight into the next one?” Bob asked from the driver’s seat.

“Next one, we need to get out of here ASAP.” I replied, relaxing against the wall of the van too. I really hoped that the next job would be a standard job…whatever that was anymore…

“Hold on…I don’t actually recall you telling me what your names were.” Frank suddenly said. This was a good point.

“Oh…well I’m Gerard…this is my brother Mikey, the guy with the fuzzball of hair is Ray and the scary one driving is Bob.” I replied, gesturing to each person in turn.

“Okay…um...how long have you been doing…this?”

“About three years…not by choice though…” Mikey replied.

“…so how many have you…uh...killed?”

“Pft…too many to count…” I sighed. “And before you ask; no we haven’t killed any teenagers before, and we weren’t about to start now.”

“How much do you get paid?”

“It varies, depending on who it is, how hard it is to track them, what they’ve done, if there’s a specific way we have to kill them…normally between $1,000 and $5,000.”

“Seriously?!”

“Yeah, we were gonna be paid $1,000 if we simply shot you but it would’ve been more if we had….yeah let’s not get into that…” I rambled, it had been a long few days and it was going to be kind of relaxing just travelling for the next few.

We passed through the state boundary and pulled into a service station which had a diner, I sent Mikey off to get some more supplies whilst Ray and I started sorting out the van so we could sleep, Bob decided to take Frank off for a smoke whilst we did this so if there were any more questions then I wouldn’t have to scramble around my tired head looking for the answers. Ray and I had to reshuffle most of the cases around to fit in an extra space for Frank to sleep but got there in the end, just in time for Mikey to arrive with steaming hot cocoa and a pizza.

“You are the best brother ever!” I exclaimed as I took one of the cups from the holder.

“I’m your only brother dingus.” He remarked, letting Ray take a cup and then sitting in the van with the pizza. “Where are Bob and Frank?”

“We’re here, I smell pizza.” Bob declared as he dragged Frank around the side of the van. “Mikey! You’re the best!” he exclaimed when he sighted not only the pizza but the cocoa too.

“I know I know.” Mikey sighed handing a cup to him. “You want one Frank?”

He nodded in reply and took it, he had gone quiet since we stopped, after he had finished asking questions he had seemed quite relaxed and was chatting along with us about his life…well the parts that didn’t involve school, but now he seemed distant, I couldn’t blame him though, he did just escape getting murdered.

We shared the pizza around, it was just a simple cheese pizza as Frank informed us that he was a vegetarian and we didn’t really know what he ate, only then I realised that we were going to get to know Frank very well very quickly whilst living in the van…something I wasn’t sure how I felt about.

~***~

“Gerard?” Frank asked, we were the only ones in the van as the others had gone off to the restroom to somewhat get ready to hunker down for the night.

“Just call me Gee, and what?” I replied, plumping up my pillow.

“…I’m scared.” He whimpered, his eyes showing his fear.

“Of what?”

“…what’ll happen when you guys have to kill someone…what if I can’t handle it?”

“It’ll be okay, to be honest we all vomited when we first started…Mikey was the worst…but after a while you get used to it…it’s kinda creepy. But Frank I’m not going to force you to help us actually kill anyone unless it’s absolutely necessary, it’s not your fault you’ve been dragged into this nightmare so it would be wrong of me to force you to do it.”

“Okay…so…um...where do I sleep?” he asked, he had been sat against the back of the seats on one of the few clear spots of the van floor.

“Good question.” I said, looking around. “Normally Mikey and Ray sleep fairly close to each other towards the back, Bob sleeps across the seats in the front because he has personal space issues and I just sleep wherever…so basically take your pick.”

He studied the blankets and pillows strewn across the closed space, he started playing with his lip ring which made me lose my breath a little before I reminded myself that he was a year younger than Mikey and I hardly knew Frank anyway…

“C-Can I sleep near you?” he asked, avoiding my gaze.

“…I...sure.” I answered.

“J-Just for tonight…I might…I mean, I might get homesick…”

“It’s okay Frank…I understand what you’re going through, we all do, we just upped and left home overnight too and we weren’t sure where we were going either, no-one to guide us whatsoever…”

“…what was it like? Those first few nights away?” he asked, shuffling closer towards me.

“Weird, I mean I had Mikey and the others, for a while it was fun but then we got dragged into this…since then it’s been touch and go.”

“How exactly did you get dragged into this if you don’t mind me asking?”

“…you’ll find out when the time is right…it wasn’t a choice that’s all I’ll say.”

He fell silent, he was practically leaning his head on my shoulder, it reminded me somewhat of the first few nights that we were away, Mikey cried himself to sleep every night and I would always hold him until he fell asleep, I guess now it was Frank who would be the one crying, although somehow it seemed unlikely.

“We’re back Gee.” Mikey declared as he opened the back door of the van and let himself and the other two in, we sat in the dim light of the van and simply talked until I felt Frank becoming dead weight on my shoulder meaning he was asleep.

“Guys I think we should call it a night…” Ray whispered, pointing to the now sleeping Frank. “Not that we’re planning to do anything too tiring tomorrow right?”

I shook my head and eased Frank off of my shoulder, somehow I managed to coax him to lie down – even if it was a little too close to me for my liking – he whimpered slightly as I shifted to lie a few inches away from him.

“G’night guys…” Bob sighed from the seats he was now led across.

“Night Bob.” Ray replied as he settled beside my half-awake brother. I wrapped a blanket around Frank before wrapping one around myself and settling down for a well-needed night’s sleep.

 

***The next day***

 

When I woke up the next morning my left arm felt heavy, I soon found out why when I tried to move it and found it was being clung to by this small teenage boy with a lip piercing.

He was still asleep, I pushed myself up with my right arm and found Ray had a similar problem with my brother, he rolled his eyes at me when he saw Frank.

“I see you have a new accessory Gerard.” He whispered.

“You too.” I replied.

“Mine’s quite old now, have had it for ages but this is one of the first times you’ve seen it.” He sighed, looking down at Mikey’s sleeping face, he had forgotten to take off his glasses again so they had dug into his skin during the night, leaving little red marks on his nose.

“Really? I’m surprised it hasn’t happened more often.” I acknowledged, looking down at Frank, his mouth was partly open and his breathing was heavy and warm against my bare arm, I could feel his lip ring digging into my skin too.

“How do you think he’s going to cope?” Ray asked after noticing my gaze.

“I don’t know…I’m hoping that it’ll be a slow yet painless process, giving the fact we’re travelling for at least another two days so that’s two days for him to get used to life on the road, then it’ll be one job in…Austin I believe…then a quick getaway somewhere else.”

“Yeah…any idea what time it is?”

I shook my head, the only clock was in the dashboard and apart from being clung to by Frank I really didn’t want to accidentally wake Bob up, he’s not a morning person.

Before long Frank stirred awake, he was a bit disorientated at first but he recovered himself as he slowly woke up and acknowledged his surroundings, he stayed clinging to my arm and I had to keep reminding myself that he was only sixteen so he was probably scared shitless even if he wasn’t showing it.

“…where are we?” he mumbled.

“Some service station in Pennsylvania…” I replied “We’re on our way to Texas remember?”

He blinked a few times and nodded, pulling himself up and leaning on my shoulder again. “What’s for breakfast?”

“Dunno, coffee at some point, but someone has to go and get it.”

He looked wistfully at me, it was kinda cute. Ray simply laughed at my apparently hilarious reaction, waking Mikey up in the process, if there’s one person who is worse than Bob in the morning it’s Mikey.

“What the fuck is so funny?” he grumbled, sitting up and rubbing the marks on his nose.

“Your brother.” Ray replied. “Sorry about waking you…”

“You will be…you can go and get the coffee if you want to make it up to me…”

Frank raised an eyebrow as Ray sighed and left the van in search of coffee, leaving a slightly annoyed Mikey and a snoring Bob with us. As if the air couldn’t get any tenser Mikey decided that if he had been rudely awakened then Bob should be awake now too.

“Bob get up.” He demanded, all he got in reply was a snore. “BOB.”

“Piss off.” Our sleeping madman mumbled.

“Bob get the fuck up now.” Mikey’s voice was sharp and low…deadly in other words.

“What Mikey?” Bob’s voice was even deadlier. I took this opportunity to drag Frank outside for a smoke to avoid the inevitable exchange of swear words and hollow insults.

As I inhaled the familiar ‘death stick’, as Mikey referred to it as, I watched the sun slowly start rising in the sky, I was aware that Frank was keeping his distance from me, not just giving me space but literally being feet away from me.

“Anything wrong?” I asked, taking another drag.

“…did something happen last night?” he replied

“Like what?”

“Anything…I mean I woke up clinging to your arm…I just wondered if something…” he was blushing slightly which was quite cute.

“Nah…we all fell asleep pretty quickly after you dropped off.” I answered, throwing the cigarette butt to the floor and putting it out with the toe of my sneaker.

“Do you mind me asking if you’ve _actually_ changed since yesterday?”

“No not since yesterday, I’m going to once we’ve had coffee.” I replied, spying Ray returning with the drinks in question.

After refuelling our caffeine reserves I went to the restroom with Mikey and Frank to change out of yesterday’s clothing, Bob mumbled something about changing in the van whilst we were gone and Ray had changed when he went to get coffee so it was really a moot point. When I walked out of the bathroom stall with a small pile of clothing to shove in the backpack Mikey brought with us, I found Frank struggling to hold back tears.

“Hey…what’s up?” I asked quietly, aware that Mikey was somewhere in the restroom still.

“I…I just miss home...” he sniffed, hastily rubbing his eyes. “I can’t believe I’m doing this…”

“If you needed more time to decide you should’ve told us…” I murmured, putting a hand on his shoulder. “We wouldn’t have left if you weren’t sure.”

“Gee…I’m…I don’t…” he whimpered, a few tears spilled down his face as he hid behind his hands. I pulled him into a hug and held him as he quietly sobbed into my beloved leather jacket. Mikey appeared out of one of the stalls and his bad mood seemed to have been forgotten when he saw us, he packed up the backpack and placed a reassuring hand on Frank’s back, leaning his head on my shoulder in an effort to be part of this weird embrace.

“Shh…” I whispered into Frank’s ear. “It’s okay…shh…” I wrapped another arm around my brother so he could attempt to calm the younger boy down.

“It’ll be fine Frank…we’re here for you.” He murmured.

“But…but..” Frank hiccupped between sobs. “But I don’t know if I can do this…kill people…”

“Shh…you’re tired, disorientated, confused, homesick and probably hungry…just calm down and relax okay?” Mikey said quietly, “I’m going back to the van now okay Gee?”

I nodded and released him from the group hug, when he left my attention turned back to the small sobbing mess that was Frank. “Okay Frank, can I call you Frankie?” he nodded and rubbed his eyes. “Cool, anyway, I know this is a lot to take in but I need you to understand that we are not going to let anything happen to you and we are not going to force you to kill anyone okay?”

“But…”

“Sh…” I said, placing a finger to his lips. “Just stay calm…we’re not going to be in Texas for another day at least, we’ll take it nice and slow okay?”

“…I’m sorry…”

“For what?” I asked.

“Being stupid about all this…you must think I’m a wimp or something.”

“No Frankie I understand why you’re upset about this, it’s reasonable. Just hang in there and it’ll all be okay.”

“…promise?” he looked at me with fearful and saddened eyes, they caused my heart to skip a beat slightly.

“Y-yeah. I promise Frankie.” I replied, pulling him in for another hug, I could feel him nuzzle my chest as we stood there in the poorly maintained restroom of the service station, the entire situation seemed too bizarre to be real. I managed to get him calmed down quite quickly and then back into the van, today it was Ray’s turn to drive for a while with Bob sat up front with him leaving me in the back with Mikey and Frank.

 

**Frank’s P.O.V**

The day passed slowly, it felt weird being this far away from home and knowing I can’t go back for now, it also felt weird that I was in a van with four guys who could kill me in two seconds flat, I’ve seen the guns and more importantly; Bob’s muscular arms that could easily break my neck. I felt calm though, mainly because they all understood what I was going through, Gerard and Mikey were behaving just like two older brothers welcoming their youngest sibling into a new cult or something, I hadn’t had much interaction with Ray and Bob yet, probably because they were letting me get used to being this far away from home under these circumstances, but they were being nice enough to make me feel comfortable here.

However, whilst Gerard was acting just like an older brother I never had there was definitely something weird going on, it was more my fault than his but it still perplexed me; how I managed to sleep clinging to his arm and him not protesting, then there was the whole situation in the restroom…most of my mind was telling me that I was emotionally unstable at the time and he was just letting me vent but part of me was thinking otherwise.

“Frankie?” Gerard called. We had stopped at a service station in Tennessee, Bob had just filled up the van with fuel and now we were all just milling around, there wasn’t anyone else at this service station so I guess there was no threat of being spotted.

“Yeah?” I replied, walking over to him, he was stood by the driver’s side of the van listening to the radio.

“Seems like we might have a problem.” He gestured for me to listen to the breaking news;

“ _Police in New Jersey are searching for a teenage boy who’s been abducted from his high school. Frank Iero was last seen being manhandled out of the school building by two men dressed in the school’s uniform, it is thought that they are past students of the school, his mother reports that he left ‘voluntarily’ with the two men a day later, claiming that he was going on a student exchange program. His whereabouts remain unknown.”_

I stared at Gerard in a stunned silence, what did this mean? Were we now going to be hunted by two groups of people?

“…I think we’ll need to buy hair dye my dear Frankie.” Gerard declared with a sigh. “It won’t be long before they release a statement of what we look like, then we’ll have cops all over the place recognising us.”

I nodded, “…so now we’re on the run from the law _and_ Kyle’s psycho team?”

“Frankie, we’ve been on the run for three years.” He simply said with a smirk. “It’s not that out of the ordinary for us. Last time this happened I had to dye my hair platinum white, that wasn’t exactly the highlight of the job.”

“I see…” I murmured quietly. Gerard called the others over and explained what we had just heard, whilst Ray and Bob were less likely to be affected Mikey left out a groan of frustration and hit the side of the van.

“Great…so what are we supposed to do?” He sighed.

“…I don’t know, I think for now we should just sit tight and try to get as far away from New Jersey as possible. Gerard replied. “If they do release a description of us then we’ll have to do something…”

“Like dye your hair again? Please no, I don’t think we can ever go back to the service station we dyed your hair in last time.” Bob remarked, “We pretty much ruined their restroom.”

“Needs must Bob, unless you wanna get done for kidnapping and probably several counts of murder you will help us dye our hair if we need to.” Gerard replied, pacing as he lectured the intimidating madman. “So in short; be thankful you weren’t spotted.”

“Whatever…can we get going again? It’s creepy out in the middle of nowhere when dusk is approaching.” He asked as he pushed past Gerard to get into the driver’s seat.

“Fine.” Gerard replied, walking around to the passenger side and getting in, leaving me with Ray and Mikey to get into the back. The two sat close together and spoke quietly, they made an effort to keep me involved but somehow I felt that they were just trying to keep to themselves…which I found a little weird…

 


	4. Chapter 4

**~*~**

“Where are we stopping tonight? I heard Gerard ask Bob.

“Who said we’re stopping? I want to get to the state line of Texas sooner rather than later.”

“…okay…but stop if you get too tired okay?”

“Yeah whatever Gee.”

I opened one eye lazily, it was near pitch black in the van with only the small roof lamp casting a dim light over everything, I had fallen asleep when it was still daylight and wasn’t aware of how long I had been asleep. I glanced over to Mikey who was in a deep slumber with his head resting against Ray’s chest, he had remembered to take his glasses off this time and they lay on top of one of the flight cases, he looked quite content.

“You okay?” Ray whispered when he realised I was awake. I just stared at him and Mikey for a few moments before nodding, I wished Gerard was back here to be my pillow.

“Sure?”

“Yeah…” I mumbled. Mikey stirred in his sleep, regaining Ray’s attention and leaving me feeling unloved, then again it wasn’t exactly a massive surprise; they had been doing this for three years after all so all they had was each other, it still sent a small pang of jealousy rippling through me nonetheless. I was starting to think that maybe they were more than ‘friends’ but I wasn’t about to start causing friction in the group by asking Gerard if this was true, after all if his brother was gay then maybe he didn’t know?

As if he could read my thoughts Gerard had lifted himself over the seats and settled next to me. “Gee?” I murmured.

“Yeah Frankie?” He whispered in reply, aware that his brother was asleep still.

“…I miss home…”

“I know you do…” He replied, wrapping a comforting arm around me. “You’ll be back before you know it, trust me.”

“Um…can you…I mean...”

“What?”

“I don’t want to be alone Gee…” I whimpered. “Can you…just hold me?”

It seemed like such a stupid thing to request but when you’ve been semi-kidnapped in the attempt to save your life from some psycho kid and you don’t know how long it’ll be before you can go home, you’ll ask for anything that’ll help you sleep; even if it’s falling asleep in the arms of someone you just met.

“Sure Frankie, I’ll stay with you all night if you want me to.” He replied, letting me shuffle closer to him.

“Thank-you Gee.” I rested my head against his steadily rising chest and closed my eyes to fall back to sleep.

**Gerard’s P.O.V**

As I held Frankie close to me whilst he fell asleep again I looked over to Ray who was in a similar situation with Mikey, I had my suspicions that there was something going on between those two but I wasn’t going to say anything until I caught them in the act or something, for now I’d just focus on making sure Frankie wasn’t freaking out too much at this change in lifestyle – starting with these long nights on the road. I sighed and rested my head against the wall of the van, part of me wanted to just fall asleep right there and then but there was a weird feeling in the back of my mind that told me otherwise.

“Gee?” Ray whispered.

“Huh?” I replied, blinking in the dim light.

“…are you okay?”

“Yeah…why wouldn’t I be?”

“You just seem tired, why don’t you try and sleep?”

“Nah I’m fine…just concerned about Frank…he’s clinging to me constantly and whilst I know it’s tough for him he _is_ sixteen.” I rambled. “I mean it’s adorable but weird.”

“He’s trying to process what’s happening Gee, give him a break. Remember how Mikey was when we first left?”

“Yeah I know…we were all scared shitless really.” I sighed. “But it’s just…I don’t know…”

“Sleep Gerard, seriously. The way Bob’s driving we’ll be in Texas before we know it and then we’ll all need to be fully awake, not just to meet the client but Frank is going to need constant support…especially when we make that crucial kill.”

“True…” I mumbled, looking down at the sleeping teenager. Something told me this was going to become a regular thing…maybe I could persuade Ray to take him under his wing some nights…

“Besides, you get cranky when you don’t sleep.” He smirked, wrapping an arm around Mikey.

I laughed lightly, this was true. I leaned back against the wall of the van again and let myself gradually fall asleep while Bob cruised along an empty highway, occasionally muttering to himself about this and that.

 

***The next day***

I blinked in the harsh sunlight that streamed through the windows, we weren’t moving which suggested that Bob had stopped somewhere so he could sleep. I eased myself awake to find that Frank was gone, panic shot through me and I sat up quickly, scanning the van. Mikey and Ray were both asleep leaning on one another, nothing was out of place, no sign of a struggle and I could hear Bob snoring.  I eased the back door open and slipped out into the morning sunlight, we were certainly near Texas; it was a near-barren wasteland bathed in golden light, Bob had literally pulled over in front of the _‘Welcome to Texas!’_ sign.

“Frankie?” I called, looking around and seeing nothing. Now I was starting to panic. “Frankie?!”

“What Gee?” A voice replied, I looked to where the voice was coming from; on top the van he was, sat cross legged looking at the rising sun.

“What the hell are you doing up there?!” I asked.

“Watching the sunrise, what else would I be doing?”

“Get down from there.”

“Why?”

“Frankie just do as I say.”

“Why? You don’t own me.” He said, I could see the smirk on his face.

“Because…if you don’t then you can sleep by yourself tonight.” I replied. He seemed to consider it for a moment before lowering himself down off the roof, he had the biggest shit-eating grin you could imagine on his face.

“Does that mean I can sleep with you tonight?”

Ah crap…

“Yes if you want to…” I replied, he suddenly jumped on me whilst laughing. “Calm down, you’ll wake the others and we don’t want that to happen as you found out yesterday; Bob and Mikey aren’t morning people.”

“Sorry.” He said, letting go of me and stepping back, he was blushing slightly again.

“It’s fine…so how long have you been out here?”

“I don’t know…about an hour I guess.”

“Why didn’t you wake me?”

He shuffled nervously before answering “I didn’t want to disturb you…you looked quite happy sleeping.”

I felt my face heat up slightly, “Oh...well…okay, I was just wondering as I panicked when I thought you had done a runner or something…”

“…Gee, not meaning to make you sound stupid…but we’re in the middle of nowhere… _where the fuck would I go_?” he laughed.

Well…that was a good point. I shrugged in reply and he simply laughed, it was then I started to realise that I preferred him to be like this; sarcastic and laughing rather than homesick and moody, however I knew that this would only be a temporary mood change; when we get down to business he’ll probably clam up again for who knows how long.

We stayed outside the van in the slowly warming air as we waited for the others to wake up, we talked more about what would happen when we got into Texas and found our client, he asked me several questions on how we specifically kill people, even asking for the goriest details which I am never good at giving out…

“If you want gory details ask Bob, he does most of the actual killing.” I sighed. “I just keep them all under control.”

“Why? Squeamish Gee?” he taunted, lightly punching me in the shoulder.

“No, I just...ugh…”

“You are.” He triumphantly said, his shit-eating grin flashing across his face again.

“It’s too early to be discussing this…” I groaned, rubbing my eyes. “I want to get going already…”

“To Austin?” he asked. “For the…next one?”

“Yes, I just kinda feel restless right now. If we lay dormant for too long we’ll pay for it…”

“Huh?” He gave me a puzzled expression, it was quite adorable. “What do you mean?”

Oops, I shouldn’t of said that, I couldn’t really tell him right now…not when we were about to start a new job, but I’d have to tell him sooner or later. I hoped I wouldn’t have to explain in too much detail.

“..Well…remember when I said this wasn’t a choice?” I replied. He nodded, confusion still spread on his face. “…basically all I’m going to say right now is that we can’t stop this now, it’s not our choice to make, if we attempt to stop…we will…pay for it.”

I watched for his reaction, he stared out towards the horizon as he processed what I just told him, I didn’t try to develop my explanation out of fear of scaring him further.

“…when do I get to know the full story?” he asked, his voice had lost all humour.

“…after this job.” I stated. “I promise.”

“You make a lot of promises don’t you?” he looked at me, his hazel eyes were serious and showed no sign of happiness they had only moments ago.

“I-I…I don’t know what you mean…”

“You promised me that it’ll all be okay…but by the sounds of what you just told me; things aren’t going to be okay Gerard.”

“Frankie…”

“No. Tell me, is it going to be okay? Don’t give me any bullshit promise Gerard, tell me straight out.” I could hear the anger rising in his voice.

“Frank, listen. You don’t understand what we’ve been doing these past two years…”

“Then make me understand!” he shouted, there were tears in his eyes. “Tell me what is going on, tell me who you really are, tell me why you were even hired to kill me in the fucking first place!”

“…I can’t Frankie, you’re too…”

“Too what? Too young? Too scared? Too fragile? Well Gerard in case it hadn’t escaped your attention I am only sixteen, I was completely normal a few days ago, nothing weird going on. Now I’m on the state-line of Texas with four guys who kill for a living!” He wasn’t even trying to hold back the tears now as he screamed at me. “Tell me what part of this is even fair on me!”

I was speechless, I didn’t understand why he was so angry, I knew he was stressed but I thought he was dealing with it…maybe that’s what this was…him dealing with it.

“Say something…anything…tell me I’m being stupid…” he whimpered, staring at the dusty ground.

“Frank…you’re not being stupid.” I said. “You’re being completely reasonable, you’re right actually, I do think you’re too young and fragile to understand…I think you should know, but I need you to understand that we’re looking after you now and therefore we decide when to tell you things…if I dumped our entire life history into you right now you’d freak out completely.”

He didn’t look up. I took a step towards him slowly, gauging his reaction, when he didn’t respond I took another step towards him and pulled him into a hug. He started sobbing again.

Ray’s head popped out of the van a few minutes later, I was still hugging Frank as he just snuffled against my chest. I barely even acknowledged Ray’s presence, I just continued stroking Frank’s head and quietly murmured ‘it’s okay’ over and over again, even when I heard Ray cough to announce his presence.

“I’m sorry…” Frank mumbled.

“Don’t be Frankie…” I whispered. “Just let it out buddy…let it all out.”

He started full out howling, clenching and unclenching his fists in my shirt. He really needed to talk to someone other than me about this.

“Shh…Frankie…” I whispered as he started hiccupping from his sobs.

“Gerard…I…I…” he gasped, pulling away from my arms.

“Calm down.”

“I…I….” he was getting worse, actually doubling over from his gasps for air. I wasn’t sure what to do.

“Frankie?”

“Gee…help…need…”

I looked around and spotted Ray, I gestured for him to suggest something to help. He nodded and disappeared back into the van, remerging with a sleepy Mikey who was confused as heck.

“What’s happening?” he mumbled, blinking in the harsh light.

“Frank’s…I don’t even know…just do something Mikes!” I replied.

“…get the inhaler Ray…he’s got respiratory problems…”  Mikey mumbled as if it was obvious without Frank sinking to the ground and gasping like a fish out of water…

Seconds later I had Frank’s head on my lap as Mikey forced him to inhale from the plastic tube, panic was whirling inside of my mind as the seconds ticked by and Frank’s breathing stabilised. When he eventually sat up I let out a breath that I didn’t know I was holding in.

“Are you okay Frank?” Mikey asked, his eyes showing concern I didn’t even know he was even capable of showing so quickly after waking up.

“…I…t-thanks…” Frank panted, looking at Mikey and then to me. “I just got…carried away…”

I nodded, brushing his fringe away from his eyes. I glanced up at my brother who looked less-than impressed, and then to Ray who simply looked concerned. It occurred to me that Bob was still asleep and hadn’t woken up in the commotion.

“Can we get some food please?” Frank murmured. “I’m hungry.”

“Yeah sure Frankie…” I replied, ignoring Mikey’s slight sigh. “Someone needs to wake Bob up though.”

After the brief exchange of insults that took place between me and Bob when I woke him up, we headed across the state line into Texas. It didn’t take too long for us to find somewhere to eat, it may have been a cheap diner with ridiculously greasy food but it was enough for us…even if Frank didn’t eat any of the bacon that Bob happily wolfed down. I just sat with coffee and a half eaten bagel whilst Mikey and Ray devoured plates of grease-laden food. We were the only people in the diner other than the waitress who kept us supplied with coffee and the cheery chef dancing around to the radio in the kitchen, I glanced at the clock; it was only half eight and yet we were all up and ready to go – I don’t recall us being up this early before.

“Want some more coffee honey?” the waitress asked me.

“Sure thanks.” I replied, watching my cup fill up with my beloved caffeine drink. I started watching Frank as he shoved forkfuls of omelette into his mouth, he had recovered quickly from earlier although he was a little quieter now and his eyes were red from his sobbing.

Eventually everyone had eaten enough, even I had managed to eat the rest of my bagel and then Mikey persuaded me to have an omelette, we paid for our food out of the last job’s earnings and then got back into the van. Mikey drove us on a five-hour trip to Austin with Ray sitting up front with him, I sat with Frank cuddling into me and Bob giving me weird looks. I dismissed them as we sat in silence for most of the trip with only the radio droning on in the background.

“Right, we’re meeting the client in the industrial part of town.” Mikey declared as we entered the city. “Who’s coming with me this time?”

The question surprised us slightly, I always go with Mikey to meet the clients, it was just how things worked normally. Then again things weren’t normal anymore, not since Frank joined us. I shrugged, if he wanted someone else to go with him then that was fine with me, Ray and Bob simply raised an eyebrow at me before they both agreed to go with Mikey. Needless to say I wasn’t surprised that he didn’t question this, nor was I surprised when Frank sighed into my shoulder.

We parked up and the others left us in the van, Frank and I sat in silence for a few moments, I didn’t want to broach what happened earlier with him or what was happening right now as far as our job was concerned. I just wrapped an arm around him and rested my head on top of his, waiting for one of us to find something to say.


	5. Chapter 5

**Frank’s P.O.V**

I didn’t know what to say, my chest still hurt a little from this morning and there was still a lump in my throat from my hysterical sobbing. I wasn’t sure what I was feeling anymore…numbness was invading my body and the only thing different from this numbness was a weird feeling…I was…relaxed, which I shouldn’t have been in this situation.

“Gee?” I mumbled after what seemed like forever of silence.

“Yeah Frankie?”

“I’m sorry about earlier…I just get emotional really easily.”

“It’s okay, I understand.”

“But do you? Do you really?”

“Frankie, I may not know _exactly_ how you feel, but I have a general idea.” He replied, stroking my head slowly.

“…can I ask you something?” I asked, suddenly thinking of something that could get away from me and him.

“Sure.”

“…is Mikey…I mean…are Mikey and Ray…together?”

I felt him sigh, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.

“I don’t know…I know Mikey’s gay but…I have no idea really about Ray.”

“He’s gay?” I asked surprised.

“Is that a problem?”

“N-no…I mean I did just ask if he was with Ray but, I guess I didn’t think you’d know.”

“Well he did come out to our mother a few weeks after I did so…and it _is_ the reason we left home in the first place really.”

“Wait, _you’re_ gay too?”

“Frank I understand if you’re a little creeped out about this, but if it makes you feel any better; Bob’s straight.”

“N-no…it’s fine, just a little bit more warning would’ve been good I guess…” I mumbled, I felt myself blushing, this news opened up a whole new world of possibilities.

“Do you mind me asking if you’re…?” he whispered, almost as if he didn’t really want me to hear.

“…I…I don’t know…I’ve never really been into anyone…” I muttered in reply. It was true, I never really felt romantically or lustful over anyone, guy or girl, and no-one showed any interest in me so I just accepted that I was one of these people who was gonna grow old and die alone.

“Fair enough.” He replied with a sigh, his hand gently moving down to stroke the side of my face. “Just don’t feel pressured into anything because of those two…if they do become something ‘else’…we respect each other’s personal space and such.”

I nodded, unable to fathom a reply as his fingers gently caressed my cheek bones. I’d be lying if I said that it wasn’t turning me on slightly. He stopped suddenly and pulled away, making me feel cold despite the Texan heat from outside.

“S-sorry, I didn’t realise what I was doing…it was probably sending mixed messages.” He babbled, standing up and causing the van to rock slightly. “I’m so sorry Frankie.”

“Gerard…” I started, standing up for reasons I’m not entirely sure of. “It’s fine, I’m not against gays or anything.”

“No it’s not okay, I just told you to not feel pressured whilst I was practically coming on to you.”

“Gee…stop it’s fine.”

“But-” he started before I pinned him up against the opposite wall of the van, which was an achievement in itself as he’s taller than me but also in the fact he went bright red.

“It’s fine Gerard.” I said slowly. “Stop panicking, if I realise I like guys rather than girls then that’s just what happens and vice versa. Just don’t act differently because you’re afraid of influencing me.”

“O-okay…okay…” he replied, hastily nodding.

Mikey opened the back door of the van to find us like that, he raised an eyebrow before shutting the door firmly, I heard him mutter something to the others about ‘give them a few minutes’. I released Gerard and started playing with my lip ring whilst he tried to stop himself blushing, I laughed slightly when he rolled his eyes at me.

The door opened a few seconds later and this time remained open until Gerard called out to them to ‘get their asses into the van already’ to which Bob helpfully replied with; “Are you done being seduced?”

This is only going to get weirder.

**Gerard’s P.O.V**

I have no idea what happened in the van that afternoon. As far as I could tell I told Frank that Mikey and I were gay and he was accepting – which was good – and then he said he wasn’t sure if he was gay…somewhere along the line I ended up being pinned to the wall by him and told not to worry about influencing him.

I am confused. Emotionally confused. Part of me tells me to just treat him like a brother and to not let myself do anything stupid that could lead him on in any way, yet a small voice in the back of my mind tells me otherwise…

“Gee are you even listening?” Mikey’s annoyed tone shattered my thought process.

“Uh…rhetorical question?” I answered, returning to the real world where Mikey was briefing the rest of us on what was happening as we sat in a parking lot on the edge of town.

“No.” he sighed. “Okay for Gerard’s benefit here’s what we’re doing; we have to find this guy.” He held up a photo of a middle aged man with crazy blue hair. “And slit his throat, do it successfully and we’ll get $300.”

“$300?!” Frank yelled, getting almost a death glare from Mikey, no-one interrupts Mikey, _ever_.

“Yes Frank, $300.” He muttered. “But stop yelling.”

“Sorry…” the smaller boy mumbled, returning his gaze to the dusty ground we stood on.

“So when are we doing this?” Bob asked, cracking his knuckles and making me wince slightly, I hate it when he does that.

“Tonight.”

“What? We can’t do it tonight.” I exclaimed. “What about the stalking process?”

“There isn’t time, this guy is leaving town tomorrow, we have to find him tonight and kill him, otherwise we have to chase him to wherever the hell he goes.”

“And we all know how well that went last time.” Ray chimed in. Yes I did know, it was the closest we ever got to being arrested after the victim got wise to us and nearly got us caught.

“…oh…” I looked to Frank who was still staring at the ground, I wondered what he was thinking, the kills that require slitting of the throat are always bloody and gory, I wondered if it was better him seeing that or seeing someone get shot. Once again I was pulled, literally, from my thoughts by Mikey tugging me away from the group and behind the van.

“What is up with you Gee?” he asked, trying to be stern but it sounded like a plea.

“Nothing.” I said.

“Liar.” He spat. “You’re zoning out more often than you usually are. It’s Frank isn’t it? I saw you two in the van, what’s going on?”

The questions swam around my head, each bumping into the walls of my brain and getting no response, my thoughts were just the same thing over and over again;

_Frank Frank Frank Frank_

“GERARD!”

“What?”

“Answer me…what is going on?” he sounded hurt, like I had slapped him across the face or that I just told him his favourite TV show got cancelled.

“…I may have told Frank that we’re both gay.” I muttered, Mikey was a private person and didn’t really appreciate me telling Ray and Bob the real reason behind us leaving home instantaneously, and he knew them before this even started. We’ve known Frank barely three days.

“You…did what?” he growled. I was honestly scared now.

“It was an accident. He asked if you and Ray were an item and it just slipped out…I’m sorry Mikes I really am…”

He took a step back and took a few deep breaths with his eyes closed, I saw his fists clench and unclench several times, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he decked me right then and there, he had every right to.

“Gerard…just…ugh.” He sighed before walking back to the others. I wasn’t about to make the assumption that I was off the hook just yet. I slapped myself across the face to knock some sense into me, it would’ve worked if I hadn’t hit my head off the van on the rebound.

“Fuck.” I muttered. “Fucking hell Gerard you’re an idiot.” I snapped. “You can’t let yourself lose it, you need to support Frank, you need to pull it together and make this next kill.” I rubbed my eyes as I slumped against the van. “It’ll be okay…I promise…promise…”

“Gee?” it was Frank. Fuck.

“Yeah?” I replied, trying to sound like I wasn’t having a nervous breakdown.

“Are you okay?” he whispered, I then realised he was _right there_. I took my hands away from my face and blinked in the harsh sunlight.

“I-uh…no.” I answered, taking in his facial features up close; his hazel eyes showing concern, his slightly chapped lips from where he had been biting them in his sleep, his smooth cheek bones. “I’m not okay.”

“How come?” he asked, not moving further away but not moving any closer.

“I shouldn’t have told you that Mikey’s gay, he’s a private person and he should’ve told you himself…now he’s mad at me…and we need to be focused for tonight and no-one is going to be focused if he’s mad.” I babbled.

“…I see.” He mumbled.

“Yeah…”

“Is there anything I can do to help the situation?”

I shook my head, this was really between me and Mikey, Frank would just annoy my brother more than solve this problem. “We’re just gonna have to let Mikey calm down in his own way and time.” I replied.

Frank nodded and slumped against the van next to me, I could feel this slightly odd feeling of tension between us and I wasn’t sure why, I decided to not point it out in case I was imagining things. We looked back at the city of Austin in the mid-afternoon sun, as far as I knew Mikey was planning this job through and through so I just had to wait until he was ready before even thinking about moving.

“Gee…I won’t say anything to Mikey about…you know…” Frank sighed. “Or Ray…if that helps.”

I grunted in reply, I felt him rest his head on my shoulder, it was tempting to rest mine on top of his and just let myself drift asleep but there was no way I was about to let Mikey get any more annoyed at me.

**~*~**

“Gerard get up.” A small voice whimpered. I lazily opened my eyes and found Frank barely inches away from me. “Mikey’s calling for you.”

“Ah shit….how long has he been yelling?” I muttered, rubbing my eyes as I stumbled to my feet.

“A few minutes…he woke me up but you slept like a log.” He replied, a hint of laughter in his voice.

I nodded and went to find my brother, he wasn’t in that bad a mood, he simply muttered that I’d be driving for this job with Frank up front and the rest of them would ‘take care of it’. I was silently celebrating because I could keep Frank calm whilst all the gory stuff was going on, but I was silently groaning because I worried when Mikey was involved in the actual killing…I never like it when he’s face-to-face with victims as they’re unpredictable and have dealt some damage to us in recent months.

“Okay, when are we leaving and where are going?” I asked, stuffing my hands into the pockets of my jacket.

“Well we’re going to a bar, we’ll wait outside it until he comes out pissed out of his head. Maybe even send Bob in there to scout him out, so we can leave whenever really.” Mikey replied, a little bit of life came back in his voice. “It’s your choice Gee.” He was leaning against Ray who had an arm hanging loosely over his shoulder, Bob had made a quick escape to smoke a cigarette away from us – probably near Frank.

“Okay…what time do we think he’ll be there for?”

“Now I suppose.” Mikey replied vaguely, leaning into Ray’s chest, it was quite weird seeing him like this, maybe the fact that Frank knew he was gay meant he wasn’t going to hold back any longer…

“Fine, we’ll leave in ten.” I declared, turning swiftly to acquire the small teenager I was slowly developing feelings for. I found him with Bob and they were laughing and joking around about something or other. “Right, I have the pleasure of driving for tonight’s job, you’re sitting up front with me whilst all the gory stuff is being done.” I told Frank, he smiled and nodded. I felt my heart flutter slightly, why was he so adorable? It made not liking him practically impossible.

We all piled into the van, Frank seemed bizarrely excited for tonight but I wasn’t about to question it. I drove us through the streets of Austin with the radio droning on about some baseball game that none of us cared about, Ray was sharpening the knife we’d end up using and Mikey was assisting Bob in not looking suspicious so he could slip into the bar and find our victim. I pulled up two streets away from the bar in question, Bob got out and wandered off towards the building, leaving the rest of us to patiently wait it out.


	6. Chapter 6

**Frank’s P.O.V**

I was excited, I don’t know why I was excited but I was. I shouldn’t have been excited as we were going to kill someone tonight but I couldn’t sit still, I could almost sense Mikey’s annoyance underneath the quiet whispers and mumbles coming from the back of the van where he was sat with Ray. My thoughts focused on Gerard, he had reclined the seat and had his feet propped up on the steering wheel, looking bored, he caught me staring at him and smirked, my insides squirmed as I attempted to not start blushing.

I shuffled closer to him, it was cold tonight and I didn’t have many winter clothes, all I had were short sleeved t-shirts and jeans mainly, he raised an eyebrow slightly before letting me half-lie on his chest and wrapping an arm around me. He was warm and smelled good, like cigarettes and coffee but with a slight musk from not showering in a while, I didn’t mind about the last part – hygiene wasn’t a top priority in this job it seemed. I didn’t say anything and neither did he, considering we were sat in the dark with Mikey and Ray doing god knows what behind us, there wasn’t any reason to really.

He started stroking my head, sliding his fingers through my hair slowly and tugging lightly. For someone who didn’t want to be sending me mixed messages it was really hard to ignore these kinds of interactions between us. I leaned into his touch and murmured softly, so quietly I didn’t even think he heard, however he giggled lightly when I moaned a little loudly after he tugged a tiny bit tightly.

“Gee…” I mumbled, looking up at him in the darkness.

“Yeah?” Gerard hummed, stroking my face, his fingers were so soft and warm I lost the ability to breathe.

“I…I thought you didn’t want to send me mixed messages…” I sighed quietly.

“Frankie…you told me not to act differently. So I’m not.” He smiled. “I can stop if it’s making you feel uncomfortable.”

“N-no…it’s fine.”

He went back to running his fingers through my hair, it was strangely therapeutic. I could’ve fallen asleep probably if Gerard’s phone hadn’t started vibrating after getting a text from Bob, apparently the target was drinking a lot of vodka and showed no signs of stopping any time soon. That meant more time in the dark van with Gerard, I rested my head on his lap as we sat in silence.

I wasn’t sure if I should make a move, he seemed quite content to keep stroking my head like a dog but it was sending me to sleep which wasn’t going to help anyone. I took his hand and brushed it against my cheek, his fingers curled around my chin and then started stroking my neck, gradually moving underneath my shirt. I sighed heavily and let my eyes close, he continued to stroke my body and I tried to not let any noises leave my lungs as he started drawing circles on my chest with his fingers, it tickled like heck.

If it hadn’t been for the weird gasps and moans from further away in the darkness of the van then it would’ve almost been a perfect moment, however I could imagine it was weird for Gerard to hear his own brother making the noises he wanted to come from me…or maybe I was just imagining things again.

“Gerard…” I murmured as he splayed his fingers on my chest. “…Gerard…”

“Yes Frankie?” he whispered in reply, returning to drawing circles. “What’s up?”

“…mmm…”

“Pardon?” he teased. “Can’t hear you.”

“Fucker…” I sighed, leaning my face into his stomach. “It tickles…”

He giggled, god it sounded cute, I almost lost it then. I decided that enough was enough, I sat up and faced him. What little light we had made him look pale and ghostly, it was captivating, I glanced at his lips and then to his eyes that followed my gaze. I leaned in closer so we were barely inches apart, his breath was warm on my skin and I just breathed it in as I waited to see if he would meet me halfway. I could see from his eyes that a million different thoughts were going through his head at once and that there was no chance he’d lean in – although there was no clue as to whether he’d reject me if I did kiss him.

“Gee…” I whispered.

“Frankie..” he whispered back.

I closed the remaining space between us, I felt him stop breathing for a few seconds whilst I just lightly pushed on his lips, not forcing anything on him, letting him take the lead if he wanted to. When he didn’t respond I pulled back, sure I was a little hurt but I wasn’t really expecting him to embrace me with open arms and kiss me until I nearly passed out. I moved away from him, embarrassed and feeling stupid. Well done Frank, you’ve done it now.

**Gerard’s P.O.V**

Shit. Frank had kissed me and I didn’t even respond, sure it was going to happen sooner or later…I just didn’t expect it to happen _tonight_ , the night he’d witness his first kill. I looked at him in the near-darkness, he was definitely ashamed, he wouldn’t even look at me when I called him. I felt like the worst person on Earth.

“Frankie…” I whispered. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t sure what was happening…” I was trying to keep it down in case Mikey and Ray heard us. “Frankie…please…”

He hunched over in the passenger seat, if he was sobbing then this job was going to seemingly take forever, now I really did feel like the worst person ever.

I was pulled from my pleading by another text from Bob, the target was on the move. I swung my legs down from the dashboard and grunted to Mikey and Ray to get ready, I glanced at Frank briefly, he was hugging his knees and looking straight ahead. Bob returned and told me where the guy was heading, I drove slowly around the surrounding streets and alleyways, searching for him.

“There he is.” Bob muttered, pointing through the windshield at a stumbling man, he was singing loudly and was alone, perfect. I positioned the van a little bit down the road from him as Bob waited for the right moment to take his life. Mikey crouched next to him, turning the knife over in his hand, and Ray fiddled with the camera. I looked at Frank, his expression remained unchanged but he had turned around to watch the events unfold with curiosity.

“How far away is he Gee?” Bob growled, his hand gripping the door handle.

“About six feet or so.” I replied, my voice was surprisingly even, I was normally panicking when Mikey actually had to kill someone and my voice accurately portrayed my emotions. I checked the mirrors for any potential witnesses, thankfully there were none around as our target stumbled closer.

I heard the click of the door handle as Bob slowly heaved the side door open, in the rear-view mirror I saw Mikey’s signature poker face set in place, showing no remorse for the person he was about to murder, it scared me slightly. The guy’s singing got louder as he got closer, it sounded like a dying cat, suddenly the van got a lot lighter as Bob and Mikey pounced on him, he squawked just before Bob put a hand over his mouth. I didn’t need to watch to know what was happening, mostly because Frank’s frosty expression had fallen and now the horror was showing on his face as the gory part occurred. He had gone awfully pale.

“Fuck.” I heard Mikey hiss, accompanied by a weird tearing sound which was probably the guy’s throat. The camera bleeped several times as Ray took the gruesome photos for evidence, Mikey and Bob re-entered the van and slammed the door shut.

“Drive.” Was the simple command from Bob. I obliged and hit the accelerator hard, the tires screeched and then we were off. Once on the highway I hazarded a glance at Frank, he had returned to his hunched state and his breathing was loud and ragged. Poor kid was traumatised.

We actually had to pull over at a service station so he could violently throw up. Ray took over the driving so that I could do my best to console the poor boy, even if he was still ashamed at what had happened barely an hour earlier, he didn’t resist being pulled into a hug. I held him as he started silently crying, he gripped my body for dear life it seemed and I probably would have bruises on my ribs because of the sheer strength he was demonstrating.

“Frankie…” I sighed in the silent van. “Shh Frankie…” he simply continued sobbing into my chest, I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t enjoying just _how_ close we were because of this.

“I think we should just let him sob it out Gee.” Ray whispered.

I nodded, positioning his legs so he was sat across my lap. “Mikes, can you give me your inhaler in case he starts hyperventilating again?” I asked my brother. He nodded and kicked it towards me, his hands were still covered in blood, although it had dried now.

“It’ll be okay Frankie…” I murmured, planting a small kiss on his forehead, I felt him calm down slightly after that, I tried to coax him to go to sleep but to no avail.

“I can’t sleep…not after that…” he murmured into my neck.

“I should’ve warned you not to watch…” I replied. “But you have to try Frank.”

“Nu-uh.”

“Frankie…”

“No Gerard…” he whined.

“Try, I’ll be here all night. No psychopaths are going to kill you.”

“I’m _not_ a psychopath Gerard!” Mikey exclaimed, a small smirk on his face.

“I didn’t…uh…”

Frank giggled and nuzzled my neck. “t’s okay…” he mumbled. “I know Mikey wouldn’t try to kill me…or at least I hope he wouldn’t.”

I laughed lightly, I had no idea where this conversation was going but I was tired as fuck now. Frank was slurring his words, showing he was on the edge of falling asleep too, Mikey was wrapping his jacket around himself as Bob snored next to him, possibly drooling but I wasn’t about to go down that road.

 

***Next day***

I woke up to Frank thrashing in his sleep, it was barely light outside and we were still driving along some long-ass road. I wrapped my arms around Frank’s tiny body as he violently threw punches at nothing, muttering under his breath and scrabbling at his neck. It was pretty obvious what he was dreaming about. “Nu…nu-uh...no..” he mumbled “No…please…”

Mikey and Bob were still asleep so I had no help coming any time soon from them. I had to shake Frank awake before he injured himself or me in his violent nightmare. He started crying into my chest almost instantly, I did my best to calm him down but I hadn’t had to do this for nearly a year as Mikey didn’t get nightmares anymore, when he did it was always Ray who consoled him anyway.

“It’s okay Frankie, it was just a dream…just a dream…calm down.” I whispered. “Shhh you’re okay.”

“I…I…fuck” he sobbed, he wasn’t exactly being quiet and was in danger of waking the two morning monsters up. “Fuck…Gee… I can’t…”

“Sh, just calm down.” I replied, kissing his forehead. He looked up at me, a mixture of fear and confusion swirling around in his eyes. There was this warmth stirring inside me as he just stared at me.

“…um…” he mumbled.

“Listen, about last night…” I started, not really considering the bad timing of this conversation. “I…I just wasn’t expecting you to…you know…” I felt myself blushing.

“S-sorry…I just…” he went red and buried his face in the collar of my jacket.

“No it’s okay.” I replied, finding his chin with my fingers and dragging his face level with mine. “I just didn’t see it coming really and by the time I realised what was happening…” my mouth was working faster than my brain, my thoughts finally caught up with me when Frank pressed his lips onto mine lightly, to which they were quickly abandoned.

This time I was kind of expecting it to happen, I ran my hands through his hair and tugged slightly, he moaned into my lips, god that made sparks run down my body. His lip ring dug into my bottom lip and subtly opened my mouth, I felt something warm and wet snake in, I welcomed it with my tongue, causing him to moan again – this time louder – and run his hands down my sides.

“Fuck Frankie…” I sighed as I tugged his hair back so separate us. “Fucking hell.”

He panted and grinned at me, almost triumphant. His hand stroked my face, twirling little bits of my black fringe around, then he was back, kissing me forcefully this time. I made an effort to try and get him to moan loud enough to annoy Ray who was still driving in silence throughout all of this. He was having none of it though as he tore away from my lips and attacked my neck and collarbone instead, I tried not to gasp when he started nipping the sensitive skin, the little bastard was giving me hickies.

“F-Frank…” I whimpered as he kept a tiny piece of skin in his teeth and toyed with it. “You little piece of shit.”

“Right back at you Gee.” He muttered as he kissed the steadily bruising mark.

“Hilarious.” I mumbled as he went back to snuggling me like a puppy. We sat in silence for a while, occasionally exchanging little kisses.

“Does this mean…we’re…you know…an item?” he whispered.

Well shit, I hadn’t actually thought that far ahead.

“Uh…I think…maybe we should just…I dunno.” I replied. I didn’t want to start making commitments to him, not because I wasn’t sure of my own feelings _which was actually one reason_ but also because it would make his return home more distressing, I didn’t want to go through something like that.

“…okay…” he said quietly. “Cool.” I wasn’t sure if he was upset by this or not but I wasn’t about to start digging anytime soon.

 

**~*~**

“Ray where are we even going?” I asked, we had been driving for what seemed like hours and hadn’t stopped once.

“I dunno, somewhere up north. Mikey didn’t specify earlier when we were paid.”

“Earlier?” I asked, had Frank and I slept through that?

“Yes, at like five am…you both were completely out of it.” He replied. “Mikey went back to sleep almost instantly and quite clearly hasn’t woken up since.”

I looked at my younger brother, his hands still had dried blood on them, he had fallen asleep with his glasses on again and there were shadows under his eyes. I was torn between slipping Frank off my lap so I could cuddle my baby brother and telling Ray to pull over so he could instead.

“Ray pull over, you’ve been driving for hours.” I commanded. “Take a breather.”

“Really?” Ray asked, I didn’t often tell them to stop driving. “Why?”

“Mikey looks like he needs some love and attention.” I replied, tightening my grip on Frank. “And we both know that Bob isn’t likely to give him any.”

The van slowed and drifted to a stop, Ray turned around and gave me a look that screamed; ‘are you just trying to get us together?’ I heard Frank giggle slightly. I smirked at him as he eased himself over the back of the seats and sat next to Mikey’s sleeping body. He gently lifted Mikey so he was leaning against him, my brother sighed lightly, almost as if he could tell who it was. My attention was drawn back to Frank as he nuzzled my neck, clearly feeling left out.

Mikey woke up after a while, a little dazed and confused as to why he still had blood on his hands. His grumblings about the lack of coffee didn’t go unnoticed either, however we were out in the middle of nowhere about two miles from the state-line shared with Oklahoma so there was no chance of coffee yet. Bob managed to startle himself awake, he took one look at all of us and scoffed loudly.

“One day, when this is all over, you should all book out hotel rooms. Seriously the sexual tension is crazy.” He laughed “Just fuck each other and move on.”

I rolled my eyes at the madman, Frank giggled, Ray and Mikey just point blank ignored him. Nobody suggested that we continue our getaway, it seemed that we were just content to sit there talking about all sorts of shit. It was the most peaceful things had been in the past week, but that peace was about to be shattered.

Mikey’s phone started ringing. We all fell silent, his phone never actually rings, he calls people not the other way around, there is only one person who ever calls his phone.

“H-hello?” He asked.  “Yes…yes….no sir. But…I understand sir.”

I could see the confusion on Frank’s face as he watched the others expression’s slip from relaxed to absolute terror.

“No sir…that’s not true. Maybe…I mean yes but…” Mikey was cracking under the pressure.

“Who’s he talking to?” Frank whispered.

“The asshole that put us in this mess.” I replied, clutching his hand.

“You have to understand; we’re not…I know sir.”

“And who’s that?” Frank whispered.

“I pray you never have to meet him.”

“I know things are urgent but you can’t just force that on us!” Mikey suddenly exploded. “We can’t just up sticks and go to fucking Alaska! Why?...uh…well…we’ve acquired a small…” he glanced up at Frank “…asset.”

I had a feeling this was about to get ugly, acquiring Frank wasn’t exactly company policy and having to cross a border with a missing kid was going to be a mess.

“I know…no we can’t, it’s a commitment now. It’s a good asset, useful…yes…”

So now my brother was trying to pass Frank off as a new member, this could only end in bad news.

“Fine. I’ll tell Gerard. Bye.” Mikey let out a heavy sigh of relief as he tossed the phone to the other side of the van. “We have to go to Alaska, and Frank has to come with us.” He mumbled.

“What?!” Frank exclaimed. “ALASKA?”

“…yes.”

“Why?” I asked.

“We’ve been attracting too much media attention, this is his way of subduing it without letting us go.” Mikey replied, leaning against Ray’s chest.

“…and how the fuck are we going to get Frank through Canada?” Bob asked.

“That’s what we have to figure out.” Mikey solemnly said. “All we have to do is get to Alaska between now and November 30th without getting caught.”

“Today is October 14th.” Ray observed. “That’s a month and sixteen days to get from here to there.”

“It’ll take three days if we drive through Canada…so…basically we just need to find a way to avoid Canadian soil.” Bob added. “I suggest a boat.”

“A boat…from where?” I asked. Frank was remaining quiet, I guessed he was just trying to process all of this.

“Washington state, go across the Gulf of Alaska and we’re in the clear.” Bob replied.

“Coast guard? And besides, does anyone know how to pilot a boat?” Mikey scoffed.

“Can’t be that hard, and I don’t think the coast guard will have any reason to suspect us. Plus sir asshole probably has connections at the port we’d end up arriving at.” I remarked.

“Any other ideas?” Ray asked the now silent van. It was probably the most realistic and least dangerous out of any other ideas we’d be likely to come up with.

“Right, we’re doing that then.” I declared.

“HOLD ON.” Frank said loudly. “Who says’ I’m going to Alaska with you guys?”

We were all silent, I felt so guilty because he really wasn’t meant to get tangled up in this mess but now we had to drag him with us or else we’d all be killed for disobeying orders.

“Frank…I know this is tough…” I sighed, squeezing his hand. “But this is one order we can’t ignore, we’d all be killed.”

“But this is just…why?”

“Our…’employer’ is a tough man to please. Because we’ve hit several people in the past few weeks, gaining media attention, and kidnapped you, he’s seen it as a threat to his ‘enterprise’.” Ray explained.

“So the solution is to send us to Alaska?”

“Yep, it’s not the first time we’ve done it. But now we have the added problem of having a missing kid in our team.”

“Wait…Mikey said I was an asset…does that mean I’m expected to kill?”

Mikey shuffled uncomfortably “Well…he asked if who we picked up was useful and paying his stay…I had to kind of twist the truth. The last thing we needed was him thinking we abducted you for no good reason.”

“That didn’t answer my question Mikey…”

“Maybe…if he checks up on us…which he might…”

“What.”

“Calm down Frankie…” I whispered. “Let’s not worry about that part now….let’s just get to Alaska and _then_ we’ll tackle that problem.”

The rest nodded, Ray and Bob decided to split the driving between them and so decided on a route to take to Washington, Mikey started mumbling about finding a restroom so he could wash the blood off his hands, I concentrated on Frank’s sudden quietness.

“Hey…it’ll be fine.” I said, nuzzling his neck, he leaned into my touch but said nothing. “We’ll keep you safe.”

“…I miss home…” he mumbled, a tear streamed down his face. “I miss…my mom…”

“I know, I know…sh…” I hugged him and rocked him gently like a small child…then again that’s what he still was to some extent…a child…

“I mean you guys are fantastic…you’re awesome Gerard….but I just miss home.”

“Oh Frankie.” I sighed. “It may not seem like it now, but the pain will ease slowly. We’re all here for you okay? Whatever the problem we’re here for you.”

“..mmm…” was all that Frank said.


	7. Chapter 7

 

***A few days later***

 

So I managed to dye my hair red. Mikey went brunette on the sides and blond on top, Frank…well…he was adamant that he wasn’t cutting his hair at first but after seeing Mikey and I with new colour he started being demanding. Very demanding at that, first Bob shaved his hair on either side of his head, leaving a black strip of long hair going from the base of his skull to his forehead, then the remnants of blond hair dye we had left from Mikey’s restyle was used on the shaven parts of Frank’s hair. It looked good. He looked different.

“This is awesome!” he exclaimed as he ran his hands through his hair once more. “Fucking awesome Bob!”

I laughed, we were somewhere in Wyoming today, sure the trip could’ve been done in two days but we wanted to take our time and just relax a little. I loved my new style, I cut the long emo hair back and now it looked ‘normal’, Mikey had obtained some contact lenses and didn’t need glasses anymore which was cool and weird at the same time. Weird because I’d spent the past twelve years of seeing Mikey with glasses and now he had none, but cool because he had an air of self-confidence now.

“Oh my God you both look awesome!” Frank exclaimed, gesturing to me and Mikey. “Why are we doing this again?”

“So that if we are…spotted…we won’t be automatically connected to your disappearance.” Ray replied, he was fortunate enough to not need a restyle, Bob likewise.

“Oh…um…can I…call home at somepoint? Like from a payphone? I just want to talk to my mom…”

“Sure…there will be one at the next service station…” I replied, patting him on the shoulder. “But try not to let her worry about you or anything and don’t tell her where we’re going.”

Ray let Bob pack up his styling supplies before driving us down a long barren road, eventually we stopped at a near deserted service station. I got out with Frank and walked to the payphone, I gave him several quarters and watched him punch his home number into the pad. I heard his mother pick up.

“Hey mom.” Frank replied, attempting to sound cheerful.

“Frankie!” She cried, I saw the pain flash across his face.

“Yeah it’s me mom…” he mumbled.

I couldn’t hear what she was saying but he seemed on the verge of sobbing, I took his free hand in mine and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

“I know…I’m fine mom…yeah, no it’s a blast here.” He replied to her questions. “Where am I?” he looked at me, I mouthed several different states at him. “I...uh, currently in Florida, we’re going to South Carolina soon.”

More questions from his mother, he seemed less likely to burst into tears now but I still kept hold of his hand.

“Yeah I did hear mom, no I haven’t been kidnapped…no! No that’s not…Mom listen! They did not kidnap me! No!”

Mikey and the others were leaning against the van, I tried to keep Frank calm as much as I could but it simply wasn’t working, his mother was getting suspicious and was convinced that we had kidnapped him…which wasn’t actually a lie really….

“Mom, listen. I love you. I miss you but I belong here. Just stop worrying.” He said, slamming the phone down and then burying himself in my jacket, finally breaking into sobs. I smoothed his hair and rubbed his back as he clung to me, this seemed to be a repeating occurrence.

I dragged him back into the van, briefly gesturing someone to continue driving, when I dragged Frank’s small shaking body into the back of the van he was flat out sobbing again, he couldn’t even sit up without shaking. Mikey and I looked at each other whilst Ray and Bob sat up front planning the next phase of the journey.

“Why does it hurt so much?” Frank cried, curling up into a ball. “Just why…”

I took him by the shoulders and held him close, Mikey sat on his otherside and rubbed his arm comfortingly. Frank just continued dampening my clothes and didn’t respond to either of these actions.

“It feels like part of me is being ripped out…” he wheezed.

“Shh Frankie…shh…” I whispered, “Sh…”

“Fuck…” He whined.

“What?” I asked.

“Gerard…I…I need you…” he panted, looking up at me with his hazel eyes that made my heart melt. “I need you...”

“Need me?” I repeated, confused. Mikey just raised an eyebrow.

“…like the other morning…after the kill…I need you.”

It clicked then. I was his one and only comfort, only I could calm him down now. I nodded and mouthed at Mikey to leave us be, he smirked and winked before lumbering over the front seats to join his own ‘comfort’. I looked back down at Frank, his eyes were wet still and his breathing was ragged, he really did need some clarity in his life.

I leaned down and planted a gentle kiss on his lips, he snaked a hand up into my hair, I could feel his unsteady breathing through his lips. He sighed and another tear streamed down his cheek, I wiped it away with a finger and kissed him firmer.

“Gee…” he mumbled. “…I…”

“Shh…” I whispered. “Shh baby…” I stroked his cheek and kissed him again. “I’m here Frankie.” He clung to me and snuffled a few times, he was led practically on top of me on the van’s floor, I was slumped against the wall with his head rising and falling on my chest. I kissed his nose and smiled, he smiled back and nuzzled my neck.

“Are you two done yet?” Bob called from the front. I ignored him and hugged Frank tightly, he giggled lightly into my chest. Bob ended up turning around to see Frank led between my legs with his head inches from mine, his reaction said it all; “OH great, looks like I’m the only single one.”

“Aw don’t worry Bob, you’ll find someone, hey should we kidnap another teenager?” Ray joked.

“NO! No more kidnapping.” Mikey argued.

Frank and I weren’t really listening, we just kept cuddling as the van was driven over bumpy ground, I didn’t even think about the position we were in until my ass started going numb under his weight…then I realised how close our crotches were to each other’s, then it was too late to stop the blushing.

“What’s up Gee?” Frank asked, kissing my cheek, clearly oblivious to the situation…or just being a jerk about it.

“N-nothing…” I replied quickly, mentally cursing myself for blushing too easily.

“There’s _something_ up…” he purred, yes purred like a cat, as he shifted his weight around and causing friction between our bodies. Yep he was being a jerk about it.

“No there isn’t…” I rambled, trying to prevent any involuntary movements ‘down there’.

“Yes there is.” He smirked. “I can see you’re blushing.” He licked his lips. God damn it Frank. “and I can _feel_ it.” He whispered.

“Nope, don’t know what you’re on about Frankie.” I babbled.

“Gerard, stop denying things.” Mikey called from the front.

“I’m not!” I cried as Frank shifted again, he was a sadistic little fucker. “I’m really not…” Even I was beginning to doubt myself now.

“Gerarrrd.” Frank whined, drawing out the second ‘r’ of my name in a weirdly seductive way. “Nobody likes a liar Gerarrrd.”

“True that.” Ray added. Why were they all commenting on this?

“I-but-no I was…fuck.” I uttered, deciding that the only way to stop this exchange was to shut Frank _up_. I gripped a fistful of hair and tugged his head back, he laughed as I ran my tongue over his lips, I then flipped us over with a thud so I was bearing down over his small frame. He raised an eyebrow as I lowered my face closer to his, I wanted to see him squirm, no-one gives me a hard on without paying the price. I smirked as I suddenly kissed him, all tongue and teeth, no beating around the bush.

I tugged at his lip ring, flicking my tongue in and out of it, he practically melted when I sucked on it. My insides were on fire, something was building and I hoped to god that it wasn’t what I thought it was. He pulled me down, my body sinking onto his, he actually wrapped his legs around me.

“Now you’re mine.” He smirked. “All mine.”

“Fuck you.” I smirked back.

“You’re welcome to.”

Woah…was not expecting that… I blinked a few times before snapping out of my thoughts, they led in a ditch somewhere in the back of my mind whilst I got back to the adorable yet smoking hot mess that was Frankie.

I went for his neck this time, his legs gripped my waist, pushing our nether regions together, I nipped at the sensitive skin, he moaned in response, slightly tilting his body up into mine. It took every ounce of willpower to not give in to the little voice in the back of my head telling me to just ‘go for it’. I backed off, pulling him to sit in front of me and gave him a soft kiss.

“…why are you stopping?” he whimpered.

“Because my dear Frankie…one; we are in a van, two; it’s not exactly the best timing and three; I’m…I don’t think…I’m ready…” I confessed, I wasn’t ready to start committing to things like this, plain and simple.

He looked at me with slight puzzlement but nodded and kissed my cheek with a soft smile. “It’s okay Gee.” He replied. “Can you tell me what’ll happen when we’re in Alaska?”

I sighed, it changed every time we went there, sometimes we were ‘escorted’ to our residence, other times we were allowed to make our own way there.

“Well, we arrive there by boat hopefully, and somehow get to where we stay – the woman who houses us is a distant family member of mine and Mikey’s…she’s the only person outside of this van who knows exactly what we do.” I explained. “And we simply just live there for however long we need to. It’s pretty much a holiday really.”

“But what about…that guy?” Frankie asked.

“Well he’ll send us a report, basically what he thinks of us, how impressed he is…if at all…and the date we can go back to killing people.”

“I see…how long will we be in Alaska do you think?”

“Pfft…I’d say about three…maybe four months. Enough time for the media to die down really.”

He nodded, biting on his lip ring as our fingers weaved together. “So over Christmas…”

I realised that his mother would be expecting him home during the festivities, this was something that we never bothered with, sure we got each other presents but there wasn’t much of a merry atmosphere. Although this year we would be on ‘holiday’ so maybe festivities will be in order…

“I guess…I’m sorry…I know it’ll be hard…” I said, resting my cheek against his. “I-I want to try and make it as…easy as possible for you…”

He nodded. I squeezed his hand comfortingly and kissed him just under his ear. This was going to be a long few days until we were safely in Alaska.

 

***A few days later – Washington state ***

“Where are we getting a boat from then Mikey?” Bob asked as we sat in the parking lot of a coffee shop.

“I called ahead, there’s a ferry waiting at the docks, it’ll take a few days to cross the gulf, asshole has decided to let us make our own way to Elena’s house.”

“Cool, when are we getting on this damn ferry?” he grumbled.

“Soon.” Was all my younger brother said, leaning into Ray’s chest. “Soon…”

Frank had recovered well from his ordeal the other night, he was still having nightmares but he wasn’t in danger of punching me in the head whilst asleep. He also seemed pretty relaxed as well, not as tense as he was a week ago, maybe that was just down to the fact he was sleeping literally _on_ me every night. Mikey and Ray seemed to have gotten a lot closer too, I woke up one morning when Bob had taken the night shift of driving to find them curled up together…quite adorably I might add.

“Gerarrrd…” Frankie pined, sweeping me out of my daze. “Stop getting distracted by your brother.”

“Huh?” I replied, looking into his hazel eyes which were staring at me.

“You heard me. I don’t think Ray would be too amused if you were checking out his…interest.” Frank whispered with a smirk.

“Okay, one; Mikey’s my _brother_ , two; I’d never do that to a friend and three; I think we all know that I have only one interest here.” I answered swiftly, pulling his face close to mine.

“Good. Kiss me you two-timing fucker.” He slowly demanded, his eyes becoming predatory, it stirred something deep inside me which made me breathless.

“Frankie…” I whispered, “I’m not two-timing…” I smirked.

“Shut up and kiss me Gerard.”

“Not in the van guys...” Bob remarked, he had been getting annoyed with us, probably because he was jealous, either way he had banned any massive make-out sessions at any time other than when we are at service stations and just before we allegedly go to sleep at night. (although we just waited until he fell asleep before spending god knows how long attacking each other’s lips.) “I’m going to get coffee…don’t kill each other whilst I’m gone…” he declared, getting out the van.

“You heard the madman.” I said to Frankie, lightly pushing him away. “Later.”

“Gross dude…” Mikey scoffed.

 “Just ‘cause you don’t make out with Ray…” I fired back, it was hilarious watching him blush and stammer .

“I-uh…I didn’t…fuck you.”

“Correct Michael, you didn’t fuck him.” Frank said with a shit-eating grin.

“That’s not what I meant!” Mikey whined, hunching over into Ray’s chest.

“Shh Mikey…” Ray whispered, stroking my brother’s head. “Ignore the little shit.”

“Hey!” Frank laughed.

“I was joking obviously.” Ray giggled, this was getting weird.

“Don’t worry Frankie.” I said, grabbing his hand and stroking my face with it. “You’re a hilarious little shit.”

“Uh…I’ll take that as a compliment.” He replied, going red.

“You should.” Ray added. “You are hilarious, and behave like a little shit.”

“Stop calling me that!” Frank whined.

“Yeah we wouldn’t wanna upset him Ray, he might have a tantrum and snog my brother to death.” Mikey remarked with a smirk.

“Is that a challenge?” Frank replied.

An awkward silence fell in the van, we all fought to contain the laughter building. It had been a while since we had this kind of fun, the months of killing people had put a strain on our ability to just have a laugh and joke around.

“Who do you think would last longer, Gerard or Ray?” Mikey asked, raising an eyebrow at Frank.

“Dunno…we could find out.”

I didn’t like the sound of this, I gave Ray a worried glance before getting attacked by Frank’s lips and being pushed to lie on the floor of the van. He was fast and sloppy, like a puppy but rougher. I heard him growl slightly at he forced my mouth open, I struggled to keep up with his fast movements as he pressed into my mouth, the familiar ring digging into my skin as his tongue battled mine. My hips bucked up involuntarily into his and I felt a small giggle escape his throat, I could feel the heat in the air as the seconds turned into minutes.

The slamming of the driver’s door startled us all from the activity, Bob grumbled something about ‘looking after a load of college students not killers’ as he nursed his coffee. Frank raised an eyebrow at Mikey who simply shrugged, guess their little duel would have to be scheduled for some other time.

The small ferry was tied up to a jetty, it wasn’t an extravagant ferry like the ones all the Hollywood stars have but it was good enough for us. Mikey collected the keys from the owner – someone associated with Sir Asshole as we now referred to him as – and ushered us all on board. The interior reminded me of a tour bus a band would use; bunk beds built into the walls of the gangway, a small lounge/diner area towards the stern of the boat with the kitchen between the bunks and the stern. A medium sized bathroom was nestled behind the bridge which overlooked the bow, Bob started grumbling again about how none of us actually knew how to pilot a boat and somehow we’d have to make it across the Gulf of Alaska in one piece.

After a heated game of rock-paper-scissors we concluded that Ray would have first shot at piloting the boat with Bob acting as first mate, the bridge had various manuals on how to do so, it was just a matter of someone going through them and figuring it out quickly enough which was what Mikey ended up doing, leaving Frank and I to ‘rest’ in the lounge.

“…so who are we staying with?” He asked as the boat whirled into life beneath us, he sat on the horseshoe couch that stretched around the room’s walls, his gaze fixed on the skylight about us showing the greying autumn sky.

“Mine and Mikey’s grandma.” I replied, watching him chill out yet listening to the not too distant argument from the bridge.

“Grandma?” Frank remarked. “Wow…you said distant relative.”

“Yeah…she’s the only one who knows what we do and always lets us stay with her when we need to…” I sighed. “She enjoys our company and does everything she can to help us out.”

He nodded and closed his eyes, an air of tranquillity fell in the room, the boat was rhythmically rocking over the waves as they rolled into the hull. I found myself wanting to just curl up with him and sleep for the next few hours but I knew that at some point we’d have to try and cook for the others as payment for them getting us moving.

“Gee…” he sighed as he rolled over, nearly falling off the couch and onto the floor. “…gee…”

I wasn’t sure if he was asleep or not, I waited for him to say something else but to no avail; he rolled back over into the soft material with a murmur and that was the last I heard from him.

***A few hours later***

 

When I opened my eyes I could see the moon, it was pitch black in the room and I could hear Frank murmuring to himself. I sat up and fumbled around for a light switch, I found it and slowly eased the lights on, dimly at first, until I could kinda see. Frank was sprawled out on the couch breathing heavily, I could just about make out the fact he was drooling slightly.

“Gerard?” a small voice came from the doorway, I held up a hand in a form of greeting.

“Yeah?” I mumbled.

“Bob and Ray are asleep, I was wondering what had happened to you two.” Mikey replied, sitting next to me on the couch. “It’s nearly midnight.”

“Shit…I didn’t mean to fall asleep Mikes…” I groaned. “I meant to stay awake and cook something for all of us.”

Mikey let out a small laugh. “You…cook...right.” he smirked in the dim light. “Anyway, how’s Frank doing?”

I looked over at the smaller boy, he hadn’t moved. “…I think he’s getting the hang of it…I think these next few months with Elena will be good for him…”

“Maybe we should teach him some basic stuff in case we need to rely on him…” Mikey murmured.

“I told him we wouldn’t force him to do it if he didn’t want to.” I replied quickly, shooting Mikey a warning look.

“Yeah…and I respect that…but I had to tell Sir Asshole that he was an asset. If he checks up on us then he’ll be expecting Frank to be able to kill or at least seriously injure someone.”

I sighed and rubbed my forehead. “Okay…let’s just get him physically fitter then, he may not be the next Bob or anything but he should at least have the ability to pull a few decent punches.”

Mikey nodded and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Sounds good Gee. Listen, I don’t know what’s going on between you two but just be careful okay? He’s young…and probably frightened still, don’t push him.”

“Says the person who’s telling me we need to turn him into an assassin….” I remarked. “But I hear ya bro.”

“I’m gonna go crash too, maybe you should wake him up and talk to him…”

I smiled and nodded, Mikey left quietly, closing the door behind him. Frank startled himself awake barley minutes later and fell off the couch with a thud.

“…are you okay?” I asked, fighting back a laugh.

“I think so…” he muttered, not moving from the wood-panelled floor. “My head kinda hurts.”

I rolled my eyes and helped him back up, placing him practically on my lap as I dusted him off. “Sheesh and I thought Mikey was accident prone.”

He snuffed in reply and buried his faced in my chest, his hands splayed against my body. I just wanted to hold him right then and never let go, but with the conversation with Mikey still fresh in my mind I eased him off of me.

“Listen Frankie...” I sighed. He looked up at me with wide eyes which made my stomach churn. “Mikey and I were talking…we both agreed that you need to have some kind of know-how when it comes to fighting…just from a self-defence point of view.”

“…so…what did you have in mind?” he murmured, his gaze shifting to his hands which were sat in his lap. “I-I don’t really wanna kill people…”

“No Frankie you don’t have to…we were just thinking something along the lines of simple hand-to-hand combat. Bob could teach you, it’ll basically be kickboxing.” I quickly replied, my hand instinctively reaching for his face. “Nothing that could kill someone, I promise.”

“…thanks Gee.” He whispered, his lips barely moving as he looked at me in the dim light. “I mean for everything…”

I cocked my head to one side, slightly confused as to what he was getting at.

“You’ve been great…like from the moment you...uh…saved me from Kyle all the way up to now…and I’ve just never really thanked you.” He continued, his face getting closer to mine. “I don’t know _how_ to thank you really…” he blushed.

My thoughts were fusing together messily in my mind, there was a strong urge to just ravage Frank then and there but there was a small voice telling me it wasn’t the right time to do so…  
I smiled at him and caught his lips with mine in a soft movement, he sighed and wrapped his arms around my neck. My hand snaked around to the base of his mohawk and tugged lightly as my other hand travelled down his back to the base of his shirt and slide underneath to caress the hot skin.

“mmph…” he moaned as I started drawing patterns under his shirt with my fingers whilst managing to keep a firm but gentle grip on his hair. His hold on me remained tight, preventing me pulling away, not that I’d want to…

“Frankie…” I whispered as he broke away from my lips to pant. “Oh my precious Frankie…” he giggled lightly as I urged for him to take his shirt off. “Come on Frankie, I just thought of a way you can thank me…only if you want to of course.”

He nodded excitedly, smashing his lips to mine as soon as his shirt lay abandoned on the floor. “What is it?” he asked when he eventually pulled back enough for me to speak.

“…I want you to give me a handjob.” I said, feeling slightly guilty when I saw his eyes widen.

 


	8. Chapter 8

**Frank’s P.O.V**

 

My mind went blank. Gerard wanted me to give him a handjob. He wanted my hand wrapped around his cock pumping him until he…the thought alone was almost too much to comprehend.

“O-only if you want to though…” he added quickly when I didn’t respond. “I’d feel horrible if you only did it because I asked as a form of you thanking me.” He babbled.

I shook my head and quickly got off the couch, turned to face him and bit furiously down on my quivering lip. I had given myself sloppy handjobs plenty of times but now it was going to be someone else getting off to the movement of my hand, it was going to be _Gerard_ getting off…

He raised an eyebrow at me and smiled slightly as he eased the button of his jeans open, the zipper came down almost silently and before I knew it he was sat with the denim wrapped around his ankles and a prominent bulge in his grey boxers. I knelt down in front of him, my eyes flicking between Gerard’s curious gaze and the bulge in front of me.

“Do you want me to…um…help in any way?” he whispered. I shook my head, I wanted to do this myself, my own way. I hooked a finger underneath the waistband, I could feel the warmth from his skin as I jerkily pulled the material down until his boxers rested around his ankles with his jeans. My eyes then focused on his swollen cock in barely inches from me. I swallowed as I curled my fingers around the base, it was an odd sensation to be able to feel his blood pulsing underneath my hand.

“Um…I’ve never really…given a handjob before…so it might be a little...um…sloppy.” I murmured as I started slowly moving my hand up and down his length.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine Frankie…” he replied quietly. “I haven’t had one in ages so don’t feel pressured…”

“…when did you last…um…” I mumbled, trying to keep a steady rhythm going.

“Pftt…about two months ago, Bob owed me one.”

“Bob?!” I gasped, sharply twisting my hand by accident, causing Gerard to moan and push into my hand.

“Y-yes…don’t tell him I told you…mmm...fuck do that again.”

“Do what?”

“What you just did with your hand…it felt fucking great.” He sighed.

I did what he asked, only with less force, my other hand was holding one of his thighs back as I started speeding my movements up. My own cock was starting to fill out in my jeans now as Gerard continued moaning with each new movement.

“Fuck Frankie…” he groaned as I gradually got faster and more confident, he bucked his hips into my hold, “…fuck…”

“Mmm…Gee…” I sighed as I ran my thumb over the moist head. “You’re getting wet…”

He didn’t say anything, he just made a half gasp-half giggle in response. The temptation just to suck him off was getting increasingly hard to ignore, as were my own desires…

“Frankie…” he gasped as I tightened my grip slightly. “Frank…fuck…I-I’m…I’m gonna…”

I went for it, I took his entire length into my mouth, my gag reflex protested and nearly made me choke. Gerard was doing well to keep quiet as he gasped and moaned my name repeatedly, both my hands pulled his thighs apart as I used my mouth to bring him to the edge of ecstasy.

“F-Frankie…I’m nearly there…fuck…” he moaned, bucking his hips into my mouth, I was somewhat curious as to whether he could feel my lip ring or not but those thoughts were forgotten as he ran a hand through my hair, tugging on the strands as he let out a strangled moan. A warm and bitter taste filled my mouth, I wasn’t sure whether I should be swallowing or spitting it out, I decided to swallow rather than potentially stain the couch.

I sat back as he went limp, he was panting heavily and muttering words caught between my name and ‘fuck’. My hand instinctively reached down to take care of my own problem when Gerard suddenly reached down and slapped my hand away.

“No…no Frankie…I wanna…” He swallowed. “I want to…if you’ll let me…”

I nodded and hastily shifted my jeans off as he slipped off the couch and onto me, briefly pausing to pull up his boxers. I lay underneath him as he quickly slid his hand under the waistband of my underwear and held my throbbing member in his grasp. I gasped as he curled his finger over the head, he pulled my head to meet his in a clash of lips and tongue, still running his fingers up and down my hardened shaft.

“F-fuck…” I murmured, he let my head go and started twisting my nipples teasingly, keeping a steady rhythm on my shaft. “Gerard…fuck…” I moaned.

He grazed my neck with his teeth as his pace got quicker and more forceful. I could feel myself filling out even more in his hand, leaking precum over his fingers, shuddering as my anticipation grew steadily.

“You want it Frankie?” he whispered, tightening his grasp slightly. “Just say it Frankie, say that you want it.”

I nodded, swallowing as I tried to remember how to speak. “Y-yeah Gerard…I want it…fuck yeah.”

He smirked and jerked his hand harshly and quickly, squeezing lightly as he ran a hand through my hair. I wasn’t going to last much longer at this rate. My hips bucked into his hold, he responded by loosening his grip and quickly pulled my boxers down, the colder air hit my heated skin for the briefest of moments before a pair of lips swallowed my cock down almost entirely.

“Gerard?” I squeaked. He put a finger to my lips and did something with his tongue that drove my senses over the edge. “Gee…I’m...I’m…” I didn’t get to finish my sentence as before I knew it I was spilling into his mouth with a moan, I felt oddly at ease…

**Gerard’s P.O.V**

 

He lay on the floor panting, I swallowed the salty taste of Frank and swiped a thumb over my lips. I leaned down and kissed him lightly on the forehead before lazily checking the time…it was apparently half one now.

“Frankie…” I whispered, he moaned quietly in reply. “Frankie we have to go to the bunks…”

“…yeah…yeah sure…” he panted, trying to find his clothing which I had partly helped him remove.  We stumbled around in the dim light trying to make it look as if we hadn’t just sucked each other off, I probably would get yelled at anyway for some reason or another. Frank was relying on me to get him through the ferry’s layout without waking any of the others up, which was an interesting task to say the least as he kept either laughing or muttering dirty thoughts to me.

“You know…we were pretty quiet…I reckon we could do it again and not wake any of them up…” he whispered, I nearly dropped him as I was trying desperately not to laugh. Eventually we got to the bunks, he was reluctant to let go at first but when I pointed out to him that we got to sleep on proper beds for a change he seemed more acceptable when I kissed him gently and ushered him into his bunk across the gangway from mine.

“Sleep tight Frankie.” I whispered with a smile as he started drawing the curtain across.

“You too you sexy animal.” He winked, pulling it across fully. I stood there dumbfounded for a few moments trying to figure out what he was just called me before my sleep deprived body pulled me into my own bunk. My insides churned as I led there thinking about how I was going to explain this entire situation to Elena when we finally met up with her again…part of me dreaded it but part of me felt like it would be a milestone in this bizarre journey of ours…

***The next day***

 

I was awoken by Mikey squeezing himself into my bunk, whilst I love my brother for everything we’ve been through together, there is a certain air of annoyance that falls when after the first night in months that I’ve had an actual mattress to sleep on is disturbed by him invading it.

“Mikey?” I grumbled. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“Explain. Now.” He grunted.

“Eh?” I scratched my head and blinked at him.

“What were you and Frank doing last night?”

“I spoke to him about getting Bob to teach him kickboxing…why?” I answered.

“What happened after that?” Mikey sighed, prodding me in the side.

“N-nothing…why?” I half squeaked-half stuttered, unable to help it, mentally cursing my unreliable vocal chords which probably got stretched during last night’s…events…

“Gerard.” Mikey’s voice dropped to a low and deadly whisper. “Seriously, what did you do to him?”

“I fail to see what you’re getting at Mikey, I-”

“Gerard for god’s sake the kid’s sobbing into Ray’s arms right now.” Mikey bluntly informed me. “What did you do to him?”

My face must’ve said it all as Mikey looked as if he would’ve backed off if he had any space to do so. “…please don’t tell me you…”

“No! Not like that!” I protested. “I mean…he gave…he gave me a blowjob…and I...uh…returned the favour…that’s all.” I muttered.

Mikey sighed heavily and ran a hand through his hair. “For God’s sake Gerard…” he muttered.

“What? I didn’t force him to!” I protested. “I gave him every opportunity to back off…”

“Gee, take a shower, get dressed. I’ll see to Frank, you, Ray and Bob are going to be taking the first shift on the bridge.” He declared. “Don’t come looking for us, we’ll find you when we need you.”

I nodded, a little bewildered, Mikey slid out of my bunk and padded down towards the lounge. I struck my hand against my forehead.

“God dammit Gerard.” I sighed, easing myself out into the gangway and stumbling towards the bathroom. The shower handle was stubborn but I eventually managed to get a steady stream of warm water going. I couldn’t remember the last time I had a proper shower rather than just a scrub down in a restroom somewhere, it felt heavenly to be under the spray as my messy thoughts swam around my head. The reoccurring question that kept surfacing in my mind was getting harder and harder to ignore; “Why was Frank upset?”

 

**Frank’s P.O.V**

“Shh…it’s okay buddy.” Ray whispered, smoothing my back as I howled into his shirt. “It’s okay…”

“I still don’t get why you’re upset though...” Bob murmured. “I mean it sounds like you had fun.”

I didn’t reply, they didn’t understand.

“Guys I’ve sent Gerard to take a shower and told him he’ll be helping you on the bridge.” Mikey declared as he shut the door behind him. “So I’ll take care of Frank for a while.”

I felt Ray nod as he let go of me, him and Bob both gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder as they left. Mikey say next to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

“Come on dude…tell me what’s up.”

I sniffed loudly and rubbed my eyes but didn’t say anything.

“Is it Gerard?” he asked quietly.

I nodded.

“He told me what happened last night…has that got something to do with it?”

I shook my head.

He sighed lightly, I could feel his annoyance at the fact I wasn’t saying anything. “…Frank, let’s face it; you’re going to be with us for at least another four months…you might as well just tell me now to avoid any unnecessary awkwardness.”

This was a good point. However talking to Mikey was no easy task, I didn’t want to annoy or offend him in anyway as he’s clearly the patriarch of the group, getting on his bad side would prove fatal. I turned towards him on the couch, the same couch Gerard sat on last night, and bit my lip whilst trying to figure out how to word my feelings.

“Um…you see…uh...” I mumbled, glaring at my hands furiously. “I…I like Gerard.”

I waited for him to slap me, Mikey seemed like the type who wouldn’t approve of a five year age gap between his brother and a lover. When no hand came in contact with my face I looked up at him, he was smiling slightly.

“…well…I don’t see why that would cause you to be so upset Frank.” He said.

“…I…I don’t know if…like what will happen to me? I’ll have to go home won’t I? and I won’t be able to see him because you’ll be untraceable…” I whimpered, on the verge of tears again.

He pulled me into a hug. “Shh…Frank we only said you have to go home because we didn’t think you’d want to get tangled up in all of this shit…if you _really_ want to stay…you can but you _will_ have to help out with the kills.”

“…I-I…I don’t want to leave him.” I hiccupped.

“Calm down, you don’t have to Frank.” He murmured. “I think we should talk to Gerard about this when we get to our temporary home. It’ll only be a few more days…and I doubt there’s anything to fear anyway.”

“W-what do you mean?”

“Well…when I told him you were distraught he looked like I had slapped him.” Mikey laughed slightly. “Which means that he cares about you. I honestly don’t know how much or anything but he definitely cares for you.”

I nodded and pulled away from him. He really wasn’t as intimidating as I thought he was. “So…what now?” I asked. “I mean, the others are up on the bridge…”

“Do you like comic books?”

“Fuck yeah!”

He smiled and left for a short while, returning with a small stack of comics. “My secret supply. Don’t tell Gee, he’s crazy about them.”

I laughed, seizing the first one on the pile. We spent a long time shifting through various comics, it was almost like everything was normal in my life; hanging out with a friend over the adventures of Batman and Robin, rocking back and forth on a boat in the middle of nowhere.

Ray popped his head around the door after a while, we had almost finished the pile of comics. “You guys alright?” he asked.

“Yeah we’re fine Toro. How are things on the bridge?” Mikey asked, his eyes not leaving the multi-coloured page in front of him.

“They’re good. Gerard seems to enjoy piloting the boat.” Ray replied, closing the door behind him as he entered the room. “Are you okay now Frank?”

I nodded, putting the comic down. “Um…so Gerard’s on the bridge?”

“Yeah…”

Mikey quickly abandoned his comic and pulled Ray down to sit by him. “You know, I think we should have a group meeting. We need to address some things.”

“…right.” Ray replied. “…so like now?”

“If they aren’t busy then yeah.” Mikey said, shooting me a reassuring smile. Ray nodded and left quickly.

“I thought we were going to wait until we got to Alaska?” I asked.

“Well, there’s not much else for us to do whilst we’re here.”

I nodded and sat back, wondering what on earth was so important that we all needed to be around to discuss it.

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Gerard’s P.O.V**

The churning ocean before us was a good representation of my mind. Giant swells being made short work of by the bow of the boat as we continued on the course Mikey had plotted yesterday. Bob was more in tune with how the boat worked than I was, I had already nearly steered us completely off course several times and was now just watching him man the wheel.

“Hey guys, Mikey wants us to have a group meeting if that’s possible.” Ray called from the doorway.

“Okay, I’ll just stick her on auto-pilot.” Bob grumbled, pressing a blue button on the command pad. A sign lit up above my head as he pulled a wired radio down. “This is the Jersey Rose, the vessel is now under auto-command heading north to Alaska whilst her bridge is unarmed.”

A crackled voice returned; “Roger Jersey Rose, we acknowledge your call.”

With a shrug and a quick canvas of the command panel Bob turned to follow Ray and myself down towards the lounge. My stomach was twisting itself into a knot as we got closer to the door, I wondered what Frank was feeling, I wondered why he was upset and if he was fine now. The door opened and I heard Frank’s laughter followed by my own brother’s, we filed in as I sat next to Frank but wasn’t sure whether to wrap an arm around him or not so I played it safe and didn’t.

Mikey stood up once we were all settled. “Okay. So we’re due into the port in two or three days depending on the conditions at sea.” He said. “I figure now’s a good as time as any to discuss a few things.”

We all nodded in agreement. “First things first; Bob, would you be able to teach Frank some basic kickboxing?”

“Uh, sure…just kickboxing right?” Bob replied.

“Yep. Nothing that could kill, just basic self-defence kind of things.”

“Yeah okay then. Should be simple enough.”

Mikey flashed Frank a smile. “Okay, then there’s just one other thing to talk about then…”

“Which is?” I asked.

“…actually Ray, Bob, we don’t really need your input on this.” Mikey murmured. The other two guys left quietly looking a little puzzled but not questioning it. I looked at Frank who was staring at the floor whilst his fiddled with his lip ring, and then to Mikey who just looked back with his poker face set.

“…okay.” Frank mumbled. “…Gee there’s something…I…um.”

I glanced at Mikey who didn’t let anything on, “What is it Frankie?” I asked.

He flushed bright red, Mikey wouldn’t tell me anything verbally or otherwise so I was confused to say the least.

“Frankie? Come on you can tell me…” I whispered.

“I…” he stammered. “I like you Gerard.” He bluntly said, burying his face in his hands.

I was dumbfounded. Sure the kissing and other acts weren’t exactly subtle but to hear those words directly from him were another thing altogether. I wrapped an arm around him and pulled him close to me.

“…I was beginning to wonder about that.” I whispered, pressing my lips to his cheek. “You make it pretty obvious Frankie.”

He slowly took his hands away from his face. “D-Does that mean…”

I pressed my lips gently onto his, the kiss lasted only seconds but long enough for me to make my point. Mikey sighed heavily.

“Okay, well my work here is done. I’ll leave you to it.” He remarked.

“Mikey wait!” Frank suddenly said as my brother turned to leave.

“What?”

“…thanks…”

“I don’t want a handjob Frank.” He smirked. “But it’s okay.”

If I hadn’t known any better I swear I saw him wink as he closed the door. I burst out laughing as Frank’s face turned red.

“I didn’t offer him one Gee! I swear!” he protested.

“I know.” I sighed after a few more moments of laughing. “It’s okay, he was just having a laugh, which is quite rare. I reckon Ray’s made him mellow out.”

“How?”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “Well I don’t know! We may be brothers but we don’t tell each other that kind of stuff unless we need to.”

He giggled and buried his face into my shirt, the force of this made me topple over on the couch underneath him. His hazel eyes peered into mine as we led there, I kissed his nose and he nuzzled my neck, he sighed in content.

“…Gee.” He murmured.

“Hmm?”

“…I like you Gee.”

“I like you to Frankie.” I replied, tightening my grip on his waist. I could get used to these kinds of days….

 

***A few days later.***

 

“We’re about ten minutes from port.” Bob reported as he stuck his head into the lounge.

“Okay.” I replied, kissing Frank’s forehead and linking my fingers with his. “We’ll start packing up.” He nodded and disappeared again. I eased Frank off my chest and sat up. “Come on sleepy head, we need to get ready.”

“I don’t wanna!” he whined “I like this boat.”

“Well you’ll like Elena’s house even more, trust me.” I declared. “The beds are comfy, the water’s hot and there’s enough food to feed an army.”

He grunted and got off the couch to stretch. “You know…it’s Halloween in a few days.” He sighed.

“Yes…I love Halloween. Now we need to hurry up Frankie.”

“It’s my birthday on Halloween.” He said.

“...awesome! That’s gotta be the best birthday ever!” I exclaimed as we made our way to the bunks.

“It is.” He giggled.

Mikey and Ray had already stripped the bunks down and packed up their stuff, leaving us to finish the job as we pulled into port. Once the boat was safely tied up we made our way towards a familiar blue SUV that was parked up.

“Boys!” A voice called to us, a lady wearing a parker hoodie was waving us over.

“Grandma!” Mikey called as he ran into her arms, Frank kept a grip on my hand as the cold air circled us. We eventually caught up with Mikey and Elena, she hugged each one of us in turn until she got to Frank.

“Oh who’s this then?” she asked.

“This is Frank.” I replied. “He’s um...uh...”

“He’s Gerard’s boyfriend.” Mikey helpfully finished. I could’ve slapped him one.

“Wonderful!” Elena exclaimed. “Well I’m Mikey and Gerard’s grandma, but just call me Elena.” She said to Frank. He nodded and squeezed my hand.

“Can we get home please?” Mikey asked.

“Yes of course! Get in then everybody, Bob you can ride up front and leave the other’s in the back.” Elena replied.

After a short ride through the town we arrived at a large house surrounded by trees, snow had already fallen recently and gave everything a dusting of powder that shone in the dimming light. Elena bustled through the old wooden door and strode off to the kitchen to start making dinner. Ray and Mikey disappeared off towards one of the bedrooms to do god knows what, Bob settled down in front of the fireplace and promptly fell asleep.

“…so what do you wanna do Frankie?” I asked. “Dinner won’t be for a while yet.”

“You can give me a tour of the house.” He replied with a smile.

“Okay.” I took his hand in mine and tugged him into the lounge where Bob was fast asleep.

“This is the lounge, Elena will want us to all sit here after dinner every night and have ‘family time’. It sounds corny but it makes it feel a little more like home here.”

“That sounds good.” Frank said. I showed him our small dining room and then the hectic kitchen that was filled with wondrous smells from whatever Elena was cooking for us. We were quickly ushered out though and into the hallway, I gestured to a door that led to a bathroom as we walked up a narrow staircase. Five doors lined another hallway; one was closed firmly and I didn’t want to open it for fear of what could be happening behind it.

“That’s Ray’s room.” I whispered, we could hear a quiet moaning from the otherside of the door. “Although I reckon Mikey will be staying there.”

Frank cracked up in silent laughter as I tugged him away from the door, past Bob’s room and into mine.

“This is my room, normally I’d share it with Mikey but…yeah I guess you’ll be sharing with me.” I laughed. I felt Frank push into my hold, I wrapped an arm around him and kissed his temple.

“Where do the other doors lead?” he asked.

“One to a bathroom, the other to Elena’s room.”

He nodded and sighed. “So this is home for the next few months.”

“Yep…”

We heard a door open and a breathless giggle travel up the hallway. I stuck my head out of the doorway and saw Mikey slowly making his way towards our room, he passed me and just gave another breathless giggle as he rummaged around in one of the closets.

Frank raised an eyebrow at me and pointed to a red mark on Mikey’s neck. The moment passed and Mikey disappeared from the room without saying anything, cradling something in his arms and wouldn’t let me see.

As soon as he was gone again and we heard the door down the hall close, we burst into laughter. “Well no prizes for guessing what’s going on there.” I remarked, rubbing my forehead and trying to get the mental image of my brother and Ray doing unmentionable things right before dinner out of my head.

“Well…has it happened before?” Frank asked.

“Nope. I guess it’s partly because we’re all so open with each other now, Frankie your presence has broken the ice that had been forming between us. But don’t tell Bob about this, he feels excluded enough as it is because he’s the only…uh…straight one…”

“I won’t. The secret is safe with me.” He smirked. “…for a price…”

“A price?”

He got even closer to me and kissed my neck, he then started biting gently, I sagged against the doorframe as he continued to bite and suck on my neck. It took a great amount of willpower to not start groaning but I had bigger problems.

“F-Fuck Frankie…” I moaned, unable to keep my damn mouth shut as his hand slid down behind the waistband of my jeans and started palming me through the fabric of my boxers.

He pulled his lips away from my neck and kissed me, his tongue flicked against mine as his grip on my shaft got tighter and his movements increased in speed. The familiar feeling of ecstasy was pooling inside of me as he got bolder with his actions, he undid my jeans and hastily pushed them down so he could get better leverage.

“Fr-Frankie…close the…the door.” I gasped, pulling away from his lips barely enough to breathe. He nodded and backed off enough so I could move away from the doorframe, he then kicked the door shut with a slam and continued gently squeezing my shaft to make me moan.

“You like that don’t you?” he whispered, a shit-eating grin spreading across his face. “Tell me how much you like it Gerard. I wanna hear it.”

I whimpered slightly as he ran a hand through my hair and tugged, his thumb swiping over the head leaking with precum.

“Come on Gerard.” He taunted “I know you like it, I want to hear it.”

Being at the mercy of someone younger and shorter than me was something new. I couldn’t think straight and just started cussing.

“Fuck…fucking hell…” I sighed. “Frankie…fuck…”

He twisted his hand again, I moaned louder than ever.

“Oh fucking hell Gerard…” he murmured. “Fuck….”

“Frankie, I fucking love it, do it again.” I amazed myself at being able to construct a sentence.

He nodded and he did so, I let out another moan. He then vanished from in front of me, I then felt my boxers being pulled down and his lips wrapped around my shaft, his lip ring tickling the sensitive skin. His hands held my hips against the wall as he bobbed his head back and forth, his tongue sliding against my skin; sending tingling sensations up and down my body.

“Frankie…I’m…I’m..” I gasped, holding his head gently with one hand and scraping my fingers along the wall with the other. “I’m…”

He moaned, sending vibrations through me and tipping me over the edge. I was determined to stay standing as I whited out from the waves of pleasure washing over me. Eventually I regained my senses and let my knees give out, Frank sat between my legs staring at me intensely with his brown eyes.

“…I…fuck…” I panted, trying to pull my boxers back on but with little success. “…fuck...”

He giggled quietly at my attempts before helping me. I instinctively reached down to ‘take care’ of him but as my hand closed around his jeans I realised he was already moist and soft.

“…you…got off…to me?” I asked.

He flushed bright red and nodded. I stroked his cheek and smiled, he leaned over and kissed me. I was about to work at getting him hard again when Elena called up from the stairwell;

“Dinner’s ready boys!”

We heard a door open and more breathless giggling from Mikey, I then realised that I was sat on the floor of my room in my boxers with Frank now half-hard and his eyes dripping with lust.

“Fuck” I cussed as I leapt up and pulled my jeans back on. “Come on Frank. Elena hates it when we’re late for dinner.”

 

**Frank’s P.O.V**

 

Dinner was a somewhat entertaining ordeal. Mikey had red marks all over his neck and wouldn’t disclose why, Gerard kept dropping his fork onto the floor and ended up putting his face in my crotch _everytime_ he went to reach for it, Bob grumbled about his lack of sleep, Ray tried to keep a steady conversation going but his voice kept cracking and Elena just smiled at all of us as if she knew what was really going on upstairs.

“How did you get that bruise Gee?” Bob asked, pointing to the mark I had made on his neck earlier as Elena disappeared to the bathroom.

“I…uh…” Gerard replied, his hand flying to the offending mark. “Umm…”

“Frank.” Mikey bluntly stated, a smirk curling on his lips.

“You’re one to talk.” I remarked, gesturing to his marks with my knife. “I don’t recall you getting injured in the last few days.”

“I don’t recall Gerard getting hurt either.” He fired back.

“I only have one though. You have at least four.” Gerard stated triumphantly.

“That we can see.” I whispered to him, he cracked up in laughter, Mikey kicked me under the table.

“At least we shut the door. We could hear you from Ray’s room.”

“Breathless giggling.” I pointed out. Another kick to my shin was delivered sharply.

“Honestly boys, I would’ve thought that all this school-yard bickering was behind you now.” Elena sighed as she reentered the room. “Arguing about who gave who hickeys and at what point…I imagine Bob is tired of it.”

“Bob _is_ tired of it” he muttered into his drink.

We all descended into laugher. After the dishes were cleared away and washed we were summoned into the lounge for what Gerard described as ‘family time’. Ray and Mikey commandeered the longer couch and wouldn’t share with us, Elena sat in a rocking chair and picked up some knitting she had been working on, Bob slouched back into the arm chair leaving Gerard to somehow get comfortable on a smaller couch and me to lie practically on top of him.

“Okay, are we all sitting comfortably?” Elena asked. We all nodded. “Well then, how have things been on the road?”

A good half an hour was spent recounting the last few months of activity, Elena listened intently giving her opinion when necessary. When Mikey got to telling her about Kyle’s phone call she put her knitting down and looked at Gerard and me.

“So my grandsons kidnapped you and now you’re going along with their crazy lives?” she asked me.

“Yeah…looks like it.” I sighed, clutching Gerard’s hand. “I mean they saved my life.”

She nodded. “But do you have any way to defend yourself? Do you know how to shoot a gun?”

“…no…but…they said I wouldn’t have to kill anyone.”

“Frank. I told you two days ago that if you stay with us you’ll have to at some-point.” Mikey stated.

I really didn’t want to kill anyone, I didn’t want to be responsible for someone dying, I only wanted to be with Gerard, I didn’t want to be killing people.

“Bob’s going to teach him kickboxing.” Gerard declared after I had been silent for a few moments. “We’ll take it from there as and when we see fit.”

Elena nodded, apparently satisfied with Gerard’s response. She gathered her shawl around her and stood up. “Well, it’s getting late…I’ll see you boys tomorrow.”

We bid her goodnight and just sat quietly, Gerard stroked my cheek gently and kissed my forehead, Mikey and Ray just curled into each other and appeared to fall asleep, Bob sighed loudly and departed for his room. Being just sat in each other’s company was nice, no danger of being arrested, no threat of being called away on a job…it was almost perfect.

**~***~**

Bob took me outside every day for three hours and taught me how to render an opponent unable to move just by using my hands. It was remarkable, apparently all four of them knew how to do this, even though I couldn’t imagine Mikey punching and throwing someone against a tree trunk, I was getting good though, I could make Bob groan in pain if I tackled him right. The other guys would watch from the porch, shout comments on who was winning and the like. After a lot of sessions Bob decided that I should be trusted with a small dagger.

“But…I don’t…” I uttered.

“Animals Frank, we’re going hunting.” he explained. “Come on, it’ll teach you how to be evasive.”

I followed him into the forest not too far from the house, it was cold now that is was December, snow had fallen thick and fast yet Bob moved through it as if it was nothing, I struggled to keep up with him.

“If you can get a decent kill in these conditions then you’ll be on your way to being an expert.” He remarked as he then started climbing a tree, it was odd to see his massive body climbing a small trunk. “What are you waiting for Frank? Time is something we don’t have out here in the wild.”

I shook myself from my thoughts and lurched onto the cold bark, at first my fingers struggled to find purchase but once Bob pointed out to use the dagger for leverage I could’ve been compared to a squirrel. We sat in the branches of the tree, Bob canvasing the area below us for signs of life, I didn’t see what the point was; it was December, it was snowing, it was getting dark and there weren’t any plants alive, I found it hard to see how there would be something worth killing roaming the forest.

“…what are we waiting for?” I whispered.

“Moose.”

“What?!”

“Shh.”

“A moose?!”

“Yes, now be quiet.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “So…you’re expecting me to kill a moose…”

“Yep.”

“But…”

“Sh, I hear something.”

I listened; I heard the tell-tell sounds of something meandering through the snow, a snort and then I saw it; a big brown mass slowly plodding towards the tree we were sat in.

“Okay, I want you to wait until it’s past us, then jump down and kill it.”

“Oh not much then.” I muttered.

“I’ll be right behind you.”

I nodded, blood was pumping quickly around my body, I felt my stomach twisting into knots as the beast got closer. It passed underneath the branch, I froze, I didn’t want to kill a defenceless moose. I was interrupted from my thoughts by Bob shoving me out of the tree, as I hurtled towards the floor something inside me made me reach for the dagger in my sleeve.

I hit the frozen ground with a thud, I wasn’t hurt but I had gained the attention of the moose, I expected it to bolt from sight but it seemed curious, I scrambled to my feet and squared up to it. It snorted and kicked one of its hooves out and then lowered its head. Something didn’t seem right about this.

“Frank you might wanna do something, it’s going to charge at you.” Bob yelled from the tree, there was a certain amount of panic in his voice that shook me.

I looked back at the moose, it looked pissed. I fumbled with the dagger, swallowing as I tried to remain calm. It moved closer, I backed off sharpish, I didn’t want this at all.

Bob jumped down from the tree and ran at the animal, he wrapped his arms around its neck and pulled its huge antlers away from me. “Now Frank!” he shouted.

I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to do, I stared at the scene unfolding before me, it seemed so surreal. A split second later and I almost hit myself for being so dense, I gripped the dagger’s handle and ran at it. The second I plunged the blade into the animal’s neck something weird twisted inside of me, the moose made a low noise of protest and shook Bob off leaving me scrambling for a grip on its neck as I fought to get the dagger out. The blade tore against the skin, causing it to become feistier.

“Frank, get away from it!” Bob yelled as he got back on his feet, narrowly avoiding a hoof to the face.

I abandoned the blade in the animals neck and made for the nearest tree. An ear-splitting crack echoed through the area, I turned around to find the moose led on the floor, motionless.

“…ugh…not bad.” Bob remarked, pulling the bloody dagger from the animal.

“What…how?” I uttered, gesturing to the lifeless moose.

Bob brought out a small pistol. “Emergencies only.” He said, giving back the dagger. “Let’s get back to the house.”

I nodded, following him in silence back through the trees and snow.

**~***~**

“You did what?” Gerard exploded when Bob explained why I was sat in a state of shock in Mikey’s arms.

“I took him hunting.”

“He’s a vegetarian Bob!” Gerard shouted. “And you took him to kill an animal!”

“How else is he gonna learn how to kill someone?”

“He doesn’t have to!”

“Gerard, he will at some point.” Mikey muttered, tightening his hold on me.

I sat there feeling numb, it wasn’t that I was disgusted about killing a defenceless animal which could’ve killed me, there was a weird feeling inside of me that had been there since I first stabbed the moose and it didn’t feel right.

“…ugh…you could’ve consulted us first.” Gerard sighed.

“Why? You put me in charge of his training.”

“Under the group’s instruction.”

“Oh I’m sorry, I thought I was being trusted here, let’s not forget that without me _you_ would probably be dead right now.”

A bitter silence fell in the room. I felt uncomfortable, I didn’t want to know what Bob meant by that. I shrugged out of Mikey’s arms and made my way upstairs, ignoring Gerard’s calls for me to wait up. I continued ignoring him as I collapsed onto the bed in our room. Even when he touched my face, when he ran his fingers through my hair, I ignored him and pulled the covers up over my head.

“…I’m sorry Frankie…” he whispered.

I grunted in reply, I heard him leave without another word. Tears formed in my eyes, I wasn’t sure what was happening, everything just seemed so surreal and not okay, I let the tears run down my face and onto the pillow, biting down on my lip to stop myself full out wailing.

Someone entered the room, they shut the door and sat on the edge of the bed. I waited for the familiar voice of Mikey or Ray to start speaking, to start telling me that everything will be okay even though it didn’t feel like it.

“…Frankie…has my grandson upset you?” a soothing voice spoke.

“n-no…” I gulped.

“…let me see your face dear.”

I let the covers be pulled back, Elena’s kind face smiled at me, she cradled my face in her soft hands and wiped the tears away. My lip was throbbing and it was hard to choke back the sobs that stuck in my throat.

“So what is the matter then dear?” she asked quietly.

I shook my head, unable to put anything into words. She smiled and patted my head. “Do you want some tea?” I nodded, she got off the bed and opened the door; “Michael could you make some tea for us please?” she called down, I heard a vague reply before she shut the door again and sat back on the bed.

“Okay then sweetheart, tell me what happened. I got half a story from Gerard, another half from Bob and Mikey just sat there pretending he didn’t know anything.” She asked.

I told her everything that had happened in the forest, including the weird feeling I had when I stabbed the moose, and then what happened when Gerard found out, how I ignored him when he tried to apologise for something he didn’t do, I was on the edge of sobbing again when she pulled me into a hug. A knock at the door didn’t faze me, Mikey entered with a tray laid out with cups of steaming tea, he spoke quietly to Elena as I just tried to not start wailing before leaving quickly.

“Come on dear, drink this, it’ll make you feel better.” She said, holding out a cup for me. I took it and started sipping the warm liquid. I did feel a little better.

“Okay…now, what you have to understand is that they’ve been together for the last few years and they’re not used to having someone new with them. Also that Gerard…well he clearly cares for you very much, he only wants what’s best for you but…he might not know what’s best in some ways. Which is why he got so angry at Bob, Bob was doing what he thought was best which Gerard didn’t agree with.”

I nodded, drinking more tea.

“I think Michael is stuck in the middle, he can see what’s best for you but he doesn’t want to contradict his brother when it comes to something like this.”

I nodded again.

“…I can’t tell them what to do, I can only give my opinion. You have the power over Gerard to make him see sense Frankie. I’m not saying go in and tell him he’s wrong, but try to convince him that he needs to listen to the others. You need to stick together.”

I finished the tea and smiled. I felt better now, Elena smiled back, she patted my cheek as she gathered up the cups. “I’m going to start making dinner, if they ask…do you mind if they come up?”

“Actually…can I help you make dinner? I used to help my mom a lot and…yeah…I miss it.” I asked.

“Of course you can dear.” She replied. I followed her downstairs to the kitchen, the lounge was empty, as was the dining room. I ignored the pang of guilt that stuck through me when I realised that Gerard had probably gone off somewhere to sulk, Elena started putting pots and pans onto the stove and gave me a bowl of vegetables to cut up.

The kitchen began to small wonderful, I wasn’t sure what we were making for dinner but it looked good. I saw the first sign of life when Mikey came downstairs and stole a piece of carrot from the ones I had cut up, he smirked when Elena gave him a death glare.

“Michael Way what have I told you about stealing food from the kitchen?” she remarked.

“Not to?” he replied, popping another piece into his mouth.

She sighed heavily and went back to whatever was on the stove. “You can help Frankie set the table then.”

Mikey groaned before diving into the cutlery drawer, I found some plates in a cupboard and set them on the dining room table. I caught Mikey’s eye on several occasions and wondered if he knew where Gerard was but decided against asking. Elena started clattering around dishing up hot food, Ray and Bob appeared and sat down to wait for dinner to begin, I kept waiting for Gerard to appear, for him to lightly punch Bob in the shoulder as he sat down, for him to take my hand in his under the table…

“Sit down Frank.” Ray said as Mikey helped Elena bring in the serving dishes.

“Where’s Gerard?” I asked, slowly sitting in my seat.

“…I don’t know…” Ray replied, looking at Bob who just shrugged.

“He’s probably sulking in the shed.” Mikey muttered quietly as he started dishing out food. “With a cheap bottle of vodka.”

“Michael!” Elena snapped.

“What? It’s true.”

“Shed? Where?” I asked, rising from my seat. “and why?”

“Sit down Frank.” Mikey ordered. “He won’t let anyone talk to him, he’ll come out in his own time.”

I slouched back into my seat and watched him spoon potato salad onto my plate. We didn’t say much during dinner, Elena kept her kind smile on her face though even if the tension in the room was suffocating. When the meal was over and Ray and Bob were washing up I made Mikey show me the shed Gerard had apparently shut himself in. Elena didn’t object to the normal ‘family time’ being cancelled due to this. We had to go outside and around the house to get to it, the snow making the trip freezing cold and difficult.

“Here it is.” Mikey muttered as we came to a small wooden shack that looked to be poorly maintained. “I wouldn’t waste your time Frank, he won’t come out.”

I hammered on the door; “Gerard…Gee it’s me.” I called. “Gee please come out…” I heard a mumble from inside but nothing more. “Gerard…I’m not angry at you…please just come out of there.”

“Frank…I told you…he’s not going to budge.”

I hammered on the door again. “Gerard, if you don’t get your ass out here them I’m breaking the door down.”

“No you’re not.” Mikey remarked. I ignored him.

“Go away.” Gerard mumbled.

“Why?” I demanded. “Why are you locking yourself away Gee?”

“Just go away.”

Mikey tugged on my arm. “We need to talk dude. You need to know some stuff.”

I let myself be pulled away and back into the house by Mikey, he sat me down in the lounge and sighed.

“Okay. Are you aware that both me and Gerard were bullied in highschool?” he asked.

“…not really…”

“Well we were. We were bullied, abused, hated…it was horrible.” He said. “I…I felt like shit…Gerard felt like shit…he started drinking…he drank every night, I couldn’t confide in him like a younger brother should be able to do. I…I started going the same way.”

I nodded.

“…but I stopped…Ray found me one night and…yeah…I stopped. We tried to get Gerard to stop too but…it was hard. It wasn’t easy and…he relapsed nearly every week.” He murmured. “Then we left home and I thought he was getting better, but then we got roped into this shit and…he’s put on a brave face for so long…but I think it’s all just gotten too much and he’s relapsed.”

“…so…how long will he..” I asked.

“A few hours…he’ll be out by midnight.”

I nodded. “…I’m…I’m gonna go to bed then.” I said. Mikey nodded and followed me up the stairs, he disappeared into Ray’s room with just a mumbled ‘goodnight’. I padded along the hallway to my room, I didn’t even bother changing out of my clothes as I collapsed onto the bed, missing Gerard’s comforting presence, his smooth hands running through my hair, his soft lips pressed to my forehead.

The bed seemed big and empty without him, it was cold to. I ached for him to be with me, I didn’t even know why I ignored him anymore.

“Gee…” I whispered, taking his pillow in my hands. “…I…I love you Gee…” I hugged the pillow tightly, breathing in his scent. It seemed stupid that I was so distraught when he was only in a shed outside, it just hurt so much, I wanted him to feel happy, I wanted to be with him.


	10. Chapter 10

**Gerard’s P.O.V**

I felt like shit. The alcohol wasn’t doing a lot to help. It made me feel numb, but that could just be the cold. My breaths were shaky, I had been crying and then drowning my sorrows in some cheap vodka I had found. I cared for Frank. I wanted him to be safe, to be happy, to be mine…but I didn’t want him tangled up in all of this shit.

I took another drink. The foul aftertaste made me wince. I don’t know why I had snapped at Bob when he told me…I knew Mikey was right in that Frank would have to learn to kill sooner or later…but I didn’t want him to become dark and cold like the rest of us, I didn’t want the small teenager we kidnapped to keep safe to turn into a killing machine.

I urged myself to stand up, my legs protested but I managed to lean heavily against the poorly constructed wall and not throw up. It was cold. I opened the door and found myself confronted by snow, more snow than when I went in a few hours ago, I could see Frank and Mikey’s footprints in the snow, my heart ached.

When I stumbled into the house I heard Elena’s ‘angry voice’ and I knew I was in trouble. “Gerard. Here. Now.”

I slunk into the lounge and sat on the couch, Elena sat in her rocking chair with her arms folded, she was wearing her dressing gown, it must’ve been late.

“Explain Gerard.”

“Explain what?” I muttered, staring at the floor.

“Start with why I found Frank crying in bed.”

“…I don’t know…he just ignored me…I freaked out because Bob had forced him to kill a moose.” I replied.

“Anything else?”

I shook my head. She sighed heavily.

“…and why were you in the shed all this time?”

“I hated myself for freaking out at him. I don’t want him wrapped up in this…this…chaos.” I murmured.

“You stink of alcohol Gerard.”

“Yes I drank a lot.” I snapped. “It makes me feel better.”

“I know Gerard, but why don’t you try drawing instead? It used to help when you were younger.”

“…I don’t have a pad…or any art stuff…”

“There’s some in your closet.” She simply said. “Tomorrow I want you to sort things out with them. I’m not having you at each other’s throats whilst you’re here.”

I nodded.

“Go get some sleep.” She said softly.

I nodded again and slowly made my way up to my room, I found Frank teetering on the edge of the bed, covers wrapped around his small body, his hair, which had lost all colour and grown long again, was splayed across his face. I so badly wanted to wake him up and hold him tightly but decided against it for fear that he was still mad at me, I eased myself into bed, lightly pulling the covers from him, and stared at the dark ceiling.

“…I’m sorry Frankie…” I murmured.

“…it’s okay.” A faint reply came. I looked over to him in surprise, he hadn’t moved.

“I was a jerk…I…I lost it…” I continued.

“It’s okay Gee…are you okay now?” he whimpered.

“I’ll get better.”

He sniffed, he had been crying again. “…I…I love you Gerard.”

I had to stop and think for a second, did he really just say that? I realised that I was being silent for too long.

“I…I…Frankie…”

“…it’s fine if you don’t…I mean…”

“No, no no no Frankie. I...I just…” I reached out and pulled him close to me, he whimpered at first but cautiously relaxed against me. “I just…I’m drunk okay? I don’t want to say anything in case it comes out wrong…I…”

He kissed me softly, his lips trembling. “It’s okay…but I want you to know that I love you and that nothing can ever change that. I care about you Gee, I want to be there for you.”

My mind was racing, my heart slamming in my chest. I pressed my lips to his forehead, and sighed. “…we should sleep.” I mumbled. “I have to sort shit out tomorrow…”

“Okay Gee.” He sighed in reply. “Promise me you won’t drink again tonight?”

It seemed like such a weird thing to promise, I had drunk all the vodka we had, but the way Frank was clinging to me, his breathing in sync with mine, told me he was serious. “Yeah…I promise Frankie…”

 

**~***~**

**Frank’s P.O.V**  
  


Christmas came and went with little commotion, Elena cooked us a massive dinner, much like the one we had for Thanksgiving, we exchanged small gifts between ourselves, we curled up in the heat of the fireplace and fell asleep on each other on the floor surrounded by pillows and popcorn.

Gerard had taken up drawing again, he sketched every day, he showed me a few of Mikey that he drew whilst he was curled up with Ray, one or two of Bob asleep in the armchair, Elena cooking and knitting, but wouldn’t let me see most of others, brushing me off and telling me they weren’t as good.

It was mid-January, we had spent another day lazing around on the floor of the lounge in front of the fire, it had become a regular thing for all five of us to spread ourselves on the pillows and have a laugh. Elena watched on from her rocking chair as if she had five grandsons instead of two. Bob had been teaching me more assassination techniques, only in controlled conditions rather than hunting wild moose.

“No you have to sever the main artery.” He said, pointing to Mikey’s neck and demonstrating a clean cut with his finger. “Like that.”

“Oh…what if I just stab it?” I asked, poking Mikey harshly.

“No you’ll just embed your knife into his neck and struggle to get it out cleanly.”

“Can we talk about something that doesn’t require my neck to be assaulted?” Mikey complained, rolling over into Ray’s arms.

I laughed and looked to Gerard, he was drawing again, his tongue peeked out from between his lips, I scooted over and tried to get a look but he slammed the book shut, his face flushed red.

“W-what?” he asked when I burst out laughing again.

“You, silly.” I remarked. “Come on lemme see.” I said, reaching for the book.

“No!” he protested. “No it’s no good!”

“Show me Gee! I’ve seen the others, you’re really good!” I continued, gesturing for Mikey to help me out.

“No!” Gerard repeated. Mikey snatched the book from his grasp and flicked over the first few sketches we had all seen before, Gerard stopped trying to get it back after he realised it would be no good. Mikey paused on one of the drawings, his expression relaxed and a smile broke out on his face.

“Wow…” he showed Ray the same drawing who gave a similar reaction before handing it to Bob, I glanced over his shoulder, it was a sketch of me...lying on my stomach biting my lip. I subconsciously tucked a strand of hair behind my ear as I took the pad from Bob and studied it. My fingers traced the lines of my face, the shading of my hair, the shine in my eyes…

I looked at Gerard, his was blushing and biting his lip. “Um…there are…um…more...if you flip over…” he muttered.

I flicked over the pages and found another, this one of me pinning Mikey to the floor as we practised our combat skills, the next was of me sleeping, my mouth partly open, hand clenched on the pillow, the last was unfinished; I could tell it was me again but I couldn’t tell what the context was.

“Gee…these are…they’re amazing!” I exclaimed, hugging the pad to my chest. “Fuck dude come here.” I extended an arm, he shuffled into my hold. I took his face in my hands and kissed him long and hard.

“Get a room.” Bob coughed.

We broke apart and I handed back the sketch pad, I was about to tackle Bob and pin him to the floor when Mikey’s phone started ringing.

We all looked at the younger Way as he sighed deeply before he answered; “H-hello?” he asked. “Yes…yes sir…pardon? Yes we have, he’s progressing well.” He said, his eyes flashing cautiously to me. “Okay…when and where?...got it. Yes sir. Will do.”

“Well?” Elena asked as Mikey let his phone fall to the floor.

“…we have to be back in Washington next week to receive our brief. We got a big one.” He replied. I didn’t understand what he meant by ‘a big one’.

“Shit that means Frank’s gonna have to be trained in firearms doesn’t it?” Bob cussed.

“What?” I asked “What are you talking about? What’s a ‘big one’?”

Mikey sighed. “It’s a high profile case, so we’re told to basically kill a high member of society, which means we can’t get close enough to directly kill them; we have to use firearms.”

“No dynamite this time though.” Ray pointed out.

“Dynamite?”

“We blew up a farmhouse because we thought they were hiding inside, turns out they weren’t.” Gerard explained.

“That was hard to explain.” Mikey added

“So…I have to learn how to shoot a gun?”

“Yup.”

“But not tonight.” Elena stated. “You’re all going to bed now, it’s midnight.”

Gerard took my hand in his and helped me off the floor, pulling me close to him once I was standing. “She didn’t say we had to sleep.” He whispered as he steered me out of the room, I felt a jolt of anticipation run through me as we climbed the stairs, his hand pressing against the small of my back. He shut the door to our room softly and looked back at me standing at the foot of the bed in the dim light of the cheap table lamp.

“You okay?” he whispered, approaching me and wrapping am arm around my waist. “I mean…we don’t have to do anything you don’t want to…”

I pressed my lips to his in an innocent kiss. “I want to Gee…but…I’ve never…” I murmured.

“It’s okay, we’ll take it slow.” He replied, running a hand through my hair and walking me backwards until I was led down on the bed. “Just tell me if you want to stop or if it’s uncomfortable.”

“O-okay.” I murmured as he took his shirt off, my eyes studied his pale skin, there were a few scars I could see from jobs gone wrong, he kissed my neck and pressed his chest against mine. I pushed him off and ridded my own chest of clothing, his eyes raking over my skin until he could get back to kissing me, skin against skin, I could feel his heart beating as he got friskier.

“…mm…you okay to go further?” he whispered, his fingers running over the bulge in my jeans, his eyes looking to mine for an answer.

I nodded. “Yeah.” I breathed.

He smiled and undid my jeans, pulling them down quickly and palming me through the thin fabric of my underwear. “Try not to get off too quickly.” He smirked, his other hand going to remove his own jeans as I bucked my hips. Soon he was straddling my waist, wearing only his boxers, his hard-on rubbing against mine. I was getting lost in the pulses of pleasure steadily building within me, I did even realise I was panting until Gerard laughed and stroked my face.

“Steady on baby…you’re going to need your strength…” he whispered, leaning down to kiss me. “Trust me on that one.” I nodded and tried to focus on anything but Gerard’s cock rubbing against mine, I wasn’t very successful.

He kissed me again before getting off me, I felt cold without him pressed up against me, I looked around to find him rummaging in the closet Mikey had been in the day we arrived. He came back with a small blue bottle and a condom.

“This’ll make it more comfortable.” He said holding up the bottle. “A-are you ready?”

I nodded, ignoring the thought that this was going to be painful but instead focusing on that it was _Gerard_ who’d be doing it, the guy I loved with all my heart.

He smiled and hooked a finger under the waistband of my underwear, pulling them off with a not much hassle, he got rid of his own boxers and stood in front of me biting his lip.

“God you’re beautiful…” he murmured, leaning over to kiss me softly. “You really are Frankie...”

I whimpered into his mouth. “W-will it hurt?” I asked as he pulled away and uncapped the bottle.

“A little…but I’ll do my best to skip the pain and go for pleasure, which is why I didn’t want you getting off yet.” He replied softly, lathering two of his fingers up with the sticky substance from the bottle. “Now I have to prep you…it’ll feel weird as hell and might hurt but it’ll be better in the long run, trust me.”

I nodded and spread my legs, he ran his finger around the skin surrounding my ass, gently pushing in. He was right; it did feel weird. His eyes kept flickering up to mine, watching my reaction to each new movement as he pushed further in, stretching me gradually, I hissed when he pushed his finger all the way in. It burned slightly as he made a slight rocking movement.

“Okay?” he asked as he pulled his finger out. “How are you feeling?”

“…weird…it feels weird…” I whispered, “but…I kinda like it…”

He smiled, running two fingers over my entrance, pushing them both in slightly and watching my back arch as I breathed heavily.

“…and now?” he asked, pushing further in. “Good?”

“F-fuck…” I breathed. “fucking…hell.” I pushed down onto his fingers, longing for them to be fully inside of me. His free hand wrapped around my cock and slowly pumped me as I moaned, his fingers stretching me apart further.

“…okay…” he breathed, slowly drawing his fingers out, reaching for condom and the bottle. “Okay Frankie.”

“…are you gonna...” I murmured.

“Yes.” He looked at me, tearing the wrapper and slipping the latex onto his cock as well as coating it with whatever was already dripping out of my ass from his fingers. He settled himself between my legs, the head of his hard-on resting against my entrance, one hand on my cock, the other steadying my thigh. “Last chance to back out Frankie.”

“…I love you Gee…” I whimpered.

“I-I love you too Frankie.” He replied, pushing gently into me, he was bigger than his fingers, and although I was already fairly stretched it still burned when he slowly pushed in further and further. His fingers squeezed my hard-on, the pleasure counteracting the burning.

“F-fuck...” I hissed as he pushed all the way in and stayed there, my body closing around him, feeling him _inside me_.

“Shhh…” he whispered. “Let yourself relax…” his strokes got gradually faster and harder, he kissed my stomach and left a trail of light kisses up to my chest. After a few moments the pain started to subside, he started pulling out and then slowly back in again, it was agonisingly slow but it made everything less painful.

“Gee…just fucking…fuck…faster...” I gasped, wrapping my arms around his neck.

“I-If you want to…” he replied, picking up the pace slightly on both his thrusts and his strokes. His hand left my thigh and wrapped around my body, lifting me up so I was riding him.

“Fuck…” I sighed as he bucked his hips and sent sparks through my body. “Fuck Gee.”

His hand left my cock and held my waist as he relentlessly slammed into me, I reached down to continued where he left off, stroking myself fast and hard.

“Come on Frankie.” He panted. “Shoot over my fucking face.”

That was all I need to send me over the edge, I came, groaning and muttering his name over and over again, all over his chest and face. He didn’t stop to let me recover, he continued to slam into me, hitting my prostate repeatedly, grunting and squeezing my waist. It was almost too much to bare, the feelings of ecstasy pulsing through me as I quickly became hard again, the sounds of Gerard grunting as he pounded my ass, my own breathless moans as it built back up again

“Frankie…I’m getting…I’m…” he panted. My hand wrapped around my cock again, determined to climax with him, he cussed as he bucked his hips violently. I was close to coming again over his chest when he yelled; “Fuck!” and spilled inside of me, it was the weirdest of sensations and also the best, it sent me over the edge again and I came over his chest again with a moan, collapsing onto him and sticking to him with my seed drying between our chests.

“…wa-was that…okay?” he panted after he slipped out of me and hugged me close to him.

“Fuck…fuck yes…” I replied breathlessly, feeling his cum dripping from my ass.

“…I love you Frankie…” he said, pressing his lips to my forehead.

“I love you too Gee.” I replied shuffling closer to him.

**~***~**

**Gerard’s P.O.V**

 

“Right well we’re gonna hit the road then.” Mikey declared as we finished loading the van. “Gotta get to Washington State before Friday.”

“Well good luck boys.” Elena said, hugging us each in turn. “Be careful.”

“Bye Elena.” I said, hugging her tightly, I took Frank’s hand and we bundled into the back of the van as Mikey said goodbye to Elena. Bob started the engine and drummed his fingers against the steering wheel whilst we waited for Mikey and Ray to hurry up and get in.

“So how are we getting back?” Bob asked as he drove us through the town. Mikey produced a brown envelope that had arrived earlier this week and brought out five passports.

“Fake passports?” I asked.

“Yup.”

Bob shrugged and headed towards the border. The drive back to Washington took nearly three days of constant driving with everyone except Frank taking a shift at the wheel. The border guards didn’t bat an eyelid at us when we re-entered the states again, Mikey directed Bob to drive to Seattle once we were safely away from the Canadian border.

We arrived in Seattle and met the person sent to give us our brief in a gas station.

“Sup?” I asked as Mikey and I approached them.

“Ways. We meet again.” They remarked, taking off their black sunglasses and producing a padded envelope. “Word on the street is that you were the ones who kidnapped that kid in Jersey.”

“So? Does it matter?” Mikey asked, taking the envelope and studying the contents.

“It’s a little weird. Which one of you is he fucking then?” they smirked. It was so tempting to punch this asshole in the mouth but I knew that would make it worse.

“Why do you care? He’s a killer like the rest of us.” I replied.

“Pft, has he _actually_ killed anyone?”

“Woah hold up.” Mikey said, holding a finger up. “This says our target is the governor.”

“Correct.”

“…why? What’s he done?”

“I dunno! I just deliver these things.” The man shouted. “Oh and you have a gift.” He reached into his car and brought out a gun case. “Curtsey of the big man.”

I opened the case to find a 45 calibre rifle. Mint condition, ready to kill. I closed it again and shrugged. “Fine. Are we done here then?”

The guy nodded and got into his car, Mikey and I made our way back to the van, we got in without a word to anyone and only gestured for Ray to drive us to where we’d discuss the job. Frank eyed the gun case wearily as he snuggled up to me, quietly murmuring words that didn’t quite form a sentence.

Eventually we pulled up in the driveway of a disused farmhouse, how Mikey knew this place was abandoned remained a mystery to all of us but no-one questioned it, it meant we might have the chance to sleep inside a building if it was structurally sound enough.

“…Gerard, I need to speak to you.” Bob muttered as Mikey studied the contents of the van whilst Ray and Frank investigated the building.

I nodded and we walked out of earshot, beside an old willow tree struggling to stay alive in the harsh winter climate. “What’s up?”

“…that gun. I don’t trust it.”

“Why not?”

“You know I scout out the weapons and test them myself before I buy them. I don’t like the fact he’s just _given_ it to us.”

I could see what Bob meant; we never received gifts from our ‘boss’, especially a gun ready to kill someone.

“I know Bob…I don’t like it either…but I couldn’t exactly refuse. If it had gotten back to him that we had refused his ‘gift’ then he might’ve…you know…”

“Yeah…I do…remember what happened to Pete Wentz and his crew?”

I nodded, another group like ours had ended up in a situation which they couldn’t get out of, after weeks of being on the run from both the law and our ‘boss’ they were found and made an example of to all of us. It wasn’t a pretty sight, I had nightmares for weeks afterwards that we would end up the same way.

“So why don’t you test it for us Bob? If you still don’t like it then we won’t use it.” I suggested.

“I guess that could work…” he mused, staring off into the distance for a few moments. “I gotta get Frank trained in firearms anyway.”

“I thought you’d done that this week?”

“I started, he can handle a pistol…barely…but that won’t help if he has to take that shot. He needs to be properly brought up to the same level as Mikey at least.”

“That took two months to do though and I don’t think we have that kind of time.”

“Nah…we probably don’t…I can probably get him to handgun level by the end of next week. But Gerard?”

“Yeah?”

“You gotta let me do it my way…” he said, his eyes flashing dangerously, I knew exactly what he was getting at and I didn’t like it.

“Bob…I don’t want you throwing him into the hotseat straight away.” I sighed.

“Gerard, we don’t have the _time_.”

“Oi Gerard!” Mikey called from the van. I waved to him.

“Look Bob, I trust you and respect you, but Frankie’s still fragile and I really don’t want you pressuring him.”

“Gerard, we’re going to be assassinating the fucking governor, he’s going to be put under a huge amount of pressure then so we might as well get him used to it now.”

As much as I hated to admit; Bob was right.

“Fine. Just…don’t be too hard on him then.” I sighed, turning to walk back to Mikey. “…and don’t be too hard on yourself.”

Bob nodded and followed me as we made our way back to Mikey. He had gotten Ray and Frank to carry in the necessary things we needed for the night and was locking up the van.

“Took your time.” He remarked, handing Bob the keys. “Come on, I have to brief you all on the job.”

We walked through the battered door of the house and down a small hallway, which was in dire need of repainting, into a small lounge with an open fireplace. Frank and Ray had already spread some of the blankets from the van around for us to sit on.

I sat next to Frank as Bob slumped down against the wall. Ray just stared at the dancing embers of the fire whilst Mikey flipped through the papers beside him.

“Okay.” Mikey sighed looking up at us. “So here’s the deal; the governor is going to be in town in three days at some unveiling of a new school or some shit, we simply have to kill him without getting caught.”

“Oh, only that?” Frank sounded surprised.

“It’s a lot harder than you think Frank.” Ray replied. “Security is everywhere, news cameras, innocent civilians…and if you miss then you cause panic and chaos across the city and lose your chance to kill him cleanly.”

“It’s not for the faint hearted.” I muttered. “Especially after…what happened to the other group…”

“Other…group?” Frank asked.

“God dammit Gerard why did you bring that up?” Mikey snapped, glaring at me.

“…what other group Gee?” Frank asked again.

I sighed. “Please don’t hate me Mikey.”

“…you might as well tell him.” My brother stated coldly, “but I’m going to go get us some food. You coming Bob?”

Bob nodded and followed him out of the house, I heard the van start up and fade away.

Ray scooted over to us and gave me a reassuring smile. I sighed again and looked to Frank’s curious gaze.

“Okay, when we were just starting out in this…business there was another group who we repeatedly ran into, four guys like we were at the time; Pete, Patrick, Joe…and uh..”

“Andy.” Ray added helpfully.

“Oh yeah, Andy, anyway they were better than us as they had been in it longer and actually _wanted_ to be part of this crazy scheme. We started befriending them as we ran into them over and over again, they taught us some of the stuff we know now and were generally fun guys to be around. We liked them, they were the first group of friends we’d ever had. Mikey took a shine to Pete and they became almost inseparable when we got together.”

Frank nodded. “So…what happened?”

I swallowed, looking to Ray for help.

“…they got a job, like ours, only riskier.” Ray started. “It involved kidnapping someone and holding them hostage…”

“And…just keeping them until they received orders to either release or kill them.” I continued. “But the thing was; Pete and Patrick never liked hostage jobs, they were unpredictable and hard to reign in when things went wrong.”

“Which they did…very badly wrong.” Ray sighed. “The hostage struggled and Pete shot them before anyone knew what was happening. As you can imagine, the boss wasn’t amused, he ordered them to be hunted down and…killed.”

Frank’s eyes widened. “K-Killed?”

“Yep. They didn’t follow orders.” I stated. “But they weren’t caught, not right away…everyone got told to abandon our jobs and search for them…whoever brought their bodies to HQ would receive a massive reward.”

“Wait, you guys were told to search for Pete’s gang?” Frank asked, completely shocked.

I nodded, biting my lip.

“Mikey took it the hardest, being told he had to hunt down his best friend or die himself.” Ray said, “Luckily we weren’t the ones who found them.”

“But whoever did…they didn’t kill them right away. They took them back to HQ alive and…they…” I muttered, unable to stop the flashbacks of hearing and seeing the screams and yells.

“they what?”

“…we were all summoned to HQ, which is in Mexico, packed into an auditorium…and forced to watch them…be tortured to death.” I answered, my eyes slipping shut. I felt Ray’s hand on my shoulder. “Mikey…Mikey’s been cold ever since.” I uttered. “He hasn’t been the same.”

“…I…I understand why he got pissed at you saying something now.” Frank murmured.

“Which is why we can’t fuck this job up. I can’t put us through that.” I spat at the floor. “I can’t put him or you or any of us through that fucking torture.”

“It’s okay Gee…” Frank said, bringing me into a hug. “It’s okay…”

I felt my eyes well up with tears as the memories came flooding back, how I had to hold Mikey every night as he sobbed into my chest, saying over and over again that it was unfair, that he didn’t want to live because of it.

“We won’t fuck up…” Ray murmured. “We’ll be fine.”

I nodded, bring an arm around Frank as he nuzzled my neck. “Yeah I know…but it’s just…the first big job we’ve had since…I know Mikey will be highly strung.”

“Yeah well we’ll be okay. This one’s pretty simple, we just need to scout out positions at the location and then it’ll just be left up to chance.”

I nodded again, tightening my grip on Frank. I really didn’t want to screw this job up, I didn’t want to have my brother and friends tortured like the other group, I didn’t want any of this to go wrong. I didn’t want any of this at all.

 


	11. Chapter 11

**Frank’s P.O.V**

Mikey and Ray had resprayed the van, it was now a nondescript blue rather than the trademark black we had been spotted in. Bob had been testing out the rifle we had been ‘given’ and loosely training me on handguns, Gerard had been quiet, looking over the plans for the job, muttering to himself as he traced the blueprints of the area we’d be staking out in, deciding where would be the perfect place to shoot from. The day was drawing to a close when Bob decided that I was somewhat getting there regarding being able to shoot someone at long range, Mikey had been quieter than Gerard since yesterday and wouldn’t respond to anyone, not even Ray, when he was off in a daydream about something.

“…Is he okay?” I asked Bob as we cleaned the guns in the derelict kitchen, “He’s been quiet since yesterday.”

“He’s just being Mikey. You don’t know what it was like for us to be sat there and forced to watch our only friends being tortured to death, the only people who had shown us any kind of love in this pit of hell, whilst everyone around us was cheering and taunting them. Mikey was barely 15 when it happened.”

“15?! I-I didn’t know that…man that’s rough…”

“Yeah…these three years haven’t made it any easier. He still gets nightmares occasionally and forces me to stop the van so he can vomit on the side of the highway.”

“…wow…”

“He acts cold because that’s how he deals with the emotions and memories. He barely opens up on the road, he doesn’t want to remember but he does.”

“And when he does open up….he reminds me of the 15 year old boy who left home because he was being bullied.” Ray added as he entered the room. “Broken, scared, anxious and above all; unstable.”

“…oh…”

“He’s getting there though, getting better as time goes on. But I fear that it’ll all be too much one day and he’ll…he’ll go back to the way he was…when Gerard drank himself stupid every night.”

I nodded. “I know the story…he told me when Gee locked himself in the shed.”

They both nodded slightly.

“Wait, how did you two end up on the road with them?” I asked.

“I felt like I needed to keep them both safe from themselves.” Ray replied. “Plus I wasn’t really doing anything with my life, I thought it would be fun too at the time…”

“I just came for the hell of it.” Bob shrugged.

“…so how did you end up killing people?” I asked. “Gerard never told me and I figure if we’re killing the governor then I’m ready to know.”

“No you’re not.” Bob snapped, packing up the gun quickly, slamming the case shut and leaving the room.

I looked to Ray who placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “No offence Frank but…you need Gerard to tell you, not us.”

“..but…”

“No Frank, Gerard needs to be the one to tell you and he’ll do so when he’s good and ready.” Ray sternly said. “Not me, not Bob, not even Mikey. Gerard has to be the one.”

“Is it really that bad?” I muttered. Ray’s eyes portrayed the fear that we were all feeling about the next job but there was also a different look in his eyes…something that made me feel uneasy.

“…just don’t worry about it Frank. You don’t need to worry about it.” He said quietly, turning to walk back into the lounge.

I stood in the kitchen, or what was left of a kitchen anyway, and stared at the grimy floor. It had been months since I was kidnapped and I still didn’t know _how_ they ended up in this situation. Something inside of me wanted to kick off and scream bloody murder until they told me but I knew that wouldn’t solve anything; Mikey would glare at me for causing a ruckus, Bob and Ray would just look on as I got hysterical and Gerard would try to calm me down but avoid my demands to be told.

I sighed. This was getting annoying; how I was still in the dark about most of their past, it somewhat angered me, Gerard said he loved me yet wouldn’t tell me things that could potentially cause friction amongst the group. I didn’t see how that was something a lover would do.

“Frankie?” Gerard spoke quietly from the doorway.

“What?” I answered coldly.

“…are you okay?”

“…I guess.”

I felt his arms pull me into his hold from behind. “Come on Frankie…what’s bugging you?”

“How come you’ve never mentioned this other group before?” I asked leaning into his chest.

He sighed deeply. “…I didn’t want to scare you Frankie…and I didn’t want to remember their screams…the images that still haunt me occasionally.”

“…and how come you still haven’t told me how you got into this mess?”

He tensed under me, I felt his pulse quicken as his grip on me loosened. “…I-I…” he stuttered, looking away from me. “I…just can’t Frank…”

“Why? Has this ‘boss’ guy silenced you? Is he blackmailing you or something?”

He looked at me, his eyes wide. I realised this was exactly what had happened.

“…wh-what has he got over you? What did he do?”

“Please Frank…just don’t…please…” Gerard whimpered, running his hands through his hair, red strands coming loose and falling to the floor.

“Gerard…you can tell me…please just tell me.” I pleaded.

“No Frank. I can’t.” he replied, running from the room. I heard him exchanging words with Mikey. I could almost tell what was going to happen next.

Sure enough Mikey sulked into the kitchen, avoiding eye contact with me as he approached slowly. He was silent until he was barely inches from me.

“…don’t Frank. Just don’t.” he muttered, his eyes briefly flashing to mine. “Don’t.”

“I just wanted to _know_ Mikey. For God’s sake, the least you guys could do is tell me some things!” I snapped in reply.

“He’ll tell you in his own fucking time Frank.” He muttered darkly. “Until then, stop asking questions and assuming things.”

I pushed past him and made for the front door, ignoring any protests from the lounge as I passed the open door. I slammed the old door behind me as I left, the winter chill making me regret not picking up a jacket but I kept walking. I walked down the deserted road towards the city, why we were out in the middle of nowhere was beyond me but I didn’t care, trucks passed me at great speed, the tailwinds making me shiver slightly, I was just angry at all of them, even Gerard, I just wanted to know who I had fallen in love with, I wanted to know what causes him to kill people mercilessly, what this guy has hanging over him.

A cop car drove past. Realisation hit me; I was still being reported as being kidnapped and as my hair dye had washed out, the hair grown back to how it was when I was in highschool I was easily identifiable now. I turned on my heels and ran as I saw the cop car slow slightly. The last thing I wanted was to be picked up, I may have been angry at them before but now I just wanted to be with them, I didn’t want to be away from them.

When I reentered the house, out of breath from running all the way back I found myself pinned up against the wall by Mikey.

“What the fuck were you thinking?” he snapped. “You’re still being reported across the country as being kidnapped. Frank you fucking idiot!”

“I know Mikey!” I spat. “That’s why I ran back in case you hadn’t noticed that I’m out of breath.”

“You also scared the shit out of Gerard. He thought you left because he wouldn’t tell you…you idiot.” His voice softened slightly, as did his grip on me. “You fucking idiot...”

I shrugged out of his hold. “No offence Mikey, but I’m not the one keeping secrets.” I remarked. “What is even your problem? I thought we were friends dude...”

“...As much as I value our friendship Frank, my relationship with my brother is one that takes priority.” He muttered. “If he’s distressed then all hell breaks loose.”

“...fine.”

I made up my mind. If this was how it was going to be then I guessed I would have no choice but to go along with this fucking circus. I walked into the lounge and took Gerard by the hand, he had been crying but I didn’t look at him closely as I tugged him into the kitchen without a word of explanation.

“F-Frank...I” he uttered before I pulled his lips against mine. A small whimper of protest escaped his throat as we just stood there, I held his head as I slid my tongue into his mouth slowly, he didn’t fight back, nor did he encourage me to go further. I pulled back to be met with teary eyes.

“...Frankie...” he whimpered, collapsing into my hold. “I’m so sorry Frankie...” he sobbed.

I held him as he sobbed quietly, I didn’t say anything as he kept mumbling words over and over again. Eventually he pulled out of my hold and looked at me, his eyes red and puffy, his lips quivering.

“...I’m sorry...” he whispered, choking back tears again.

I shook my head and looked down at the floor. “I’m the one who should be apologising.” I muttered, glancing up at him. “I shouldn’t have pushed you like that...”

“I should’ve told you.” He exhaled.

“You don’t have to tell me Gee.” I replied. “I’m...I just thought that considering...we’re...you know...that you could at least be straight out with me.”

He sighed and ran his hands through his hair, he started pacing the small space we were in muttering things to himself. I just stood there and watched, praying that none of the others would walk in.

“...he...he hurt me...” he eventually whimpered. “...he just hurt me Frankie...”

I took his hand in mine and squeezed lightly. “...you really don’t have to tell me Gee if you don’t want to.”

“N-no, I want to Frankie. You’re right. I need to be straight with you.” He babbled quickly, taking my other hand in his. We came to sit on the floor of the grimy kitchen as he continued to tell me how they came to be hitmen. “...I wasn’t right, I mean, I drank heavily every night, at every city we stopped at I would go and get drunk in a bar until Bob or Ray came to find me. Quite often I’d be clinging to guys and girls alike, slurring my words, practically humping them there and then.”

I nodded, lightly squeezing his hands.

“o-one night...neither of them came to find me...and I ended up going home with some guy...h-he...I didn’t want to...I was drunk...”

He wasn’t making much sense but I kept hold of his hands and waited patiently for him to get his thoughts in order.

“...he raped me Frank.” He finally said, his face flushing red. “...and he filmed it...”

I felt my blood run cold, I pulled his head to rest against mine, I kissed his cheek lightly as he bit his quivering lip.

“...it’s okay Gee...” I whispered.

“No. It’s not okay.” He whined. “He...he’s the one who got us into this mess...he’s...he’s our boss...”

I didn’t understand how this guy had gone from raping Gerard to suddenly being able to order the entire group around like slaves.

“...he knew about Mikey, he somehow fucking knew...I probably told him when I was drunk...and he...he threatened to do the same to Mikey if I didn’t do as he said, he said he’d make me watch....he was going to make me watch my little brother...” he broke off into sobs again. I wrapped my arms around him and held him as he sobbed into my now damp shirt.

After a while he stilled, he didn’t say anything, he just stayed buried in my chest breathing heavily. I gently eased him away from me so I could see his face, his eyes portrayed just how broken he really was. I ignored a pressing question in my mind as I wiped his damp face with my fingers.

“It’s okay Gee...it’s okay.”

He nodded, resting his forehead against mine. “...I-I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner Frankie...”

“I don’t care Gerard, you’ve had every right to keep it away from me...but there’s one thing I don’t understand still.”

“What?”

“...we had sex Gerard...” I whispered. “...I would’ve thought that you’d shy away from it because of...him...”

“Oh...I...I do...um...but it’s _you_ Frankie...I knew you wouldn’t hurt me...abuse me or anything...” he murmured. “...I trust you...because I love you...”

“I love you too Gerard...I’m glad that you didn’t let it stop you...I would’ve understood if you didn’t want to because of this but...you did...and as weird as it sounds, I’m proud of you.”

“Proud of me?” he squeaked, looking at me wide-eyed.

I laughed lightly. “Yes, I mean I didn’t even think for a second that there was something...holding you back...”

He smiled slightly and gently pressed his lips to mine. I stroked his cheek as we sat on the floor kissing lightly, nothing x-rated, just an innocent kiss. He pulled back after a while, the familiar sparkle back in his eyes as he smiled, I smiled back and ran a hand through his hair.

“Are we okay now? Any other things we need to put out there?” I asked quietly. “Any other dark times I should be aware of?”

He shook his head. “None that I can think of...”

“Good, let’s just focus on the job then.” I stated.

 

**~***~**

It was the day of the opening. Everyone was nervous. The van had been packed, a plan agreed on, guns had been cleaned, and walkie-talkie’s tested. We were as ready as we’d ever be.

“Okay, so where is everyone going to be posted again?” Mikey asked as he drove us towards downtown Seattle.

“I’m going to be in the crowd.” Ray replied, plugging his earpiece in amongst his frizzy hair.

“I’ll be further back; monitoring the actions of the security personnel.” Gerard added.

“And I’ll be on the roof with Frank, actually taking the damn shot.” Bob muttered, polishing the barrel of the 45 calibre that we had been ‘given’.

Mikey nodded as he pulled into a parking lot a block away from the school. “Keep in contact guys, and good luck.” He said, knuckle-pounding each of us as we departed for our posts. The governor wasn’t supposed to arrive for another half an hour so we had plenty of time to get on top of the building we had been assigned to. Bob slung the gun over his shoulder on the hoister as we climbed a fire-escape ladder leading to the roof.

Once up there he set about getting a clear aim of the podium the governor would stand from and give a speech before opening the school officially. We were sheltered from being seen by a huge billboard and roofing vents, this also made it quite uncomfortable to be crammed around a small rifle.

“...so how long do we have now?” I whispered.

“About ten minutes.” Bob replied, touching his ear piece to contact Mikey. “Yo dude, we’re in position.”

“Okay.” Came a crackled response through my own ear piece. “He’s ahead of schedule so brace yourselves for a police presence to arrive.”

As if on cue we heard a police helicopter and various news crews circling overhead, vans and cars turned up just before a large black SUV rolled up in front of the school, tainted windows and everything.

“We have a visual.” Bob muttered, his face creeping closer to the eyepiece of the rifle. I looked down as the scene before me; the governor had emerged from the car and had made his way up to the podium, press and public surrounding the small platform. “Is there any specific point in which we have to kill him by or is it whenever I get a clear shot?” he asked quietly.

“No, just shoot to kill and get the hell out of there.” Mikey replied.

I held my breath as Bob’s finger went for the safety, he flipped it off with a quiet click, he sighed deeply as he lined up the shot. I could hear the governor speaking about some ‘fair opportunities’ rubbish and how the school was ‘going to help the underprivileged get a good education.’ I didn’t pay much attention until Bob took a sharp intake of breath.

“You might wanna cover your ears, this bitch is a loud one when she goes off.” He muttered, his finger slipping to the trigger.

I did as he said, covering my ears with my hands, I heard him mutter into his ear piece; “okay, here we go, standby.”

His finger squeezed the trigger, a loud bang resonated around, I wasn’t sure what was going on until I felt him pull me to my feet. “Come on Frank, we gotta go!” he growled. I nodded, following him as we hurried to the ladder, Bob slid down first and started running towards the parking lot we had left the van in. I tried to follow but my unreliable lungs were giving out with the shock that we just _shot the fucking governor_ and now we were running for our lives, my chest ached as our feet thundered against the ground, I could hear sirens and shouting around us, the whirl of helicopters above us.

I collapsed to the ground, my heart racing, my lungs felt like they were on fire, footsteps were quickly approaching, not ones I recognised, ones of the cops probably. I tried to stand but only managing to slump against the wall as my body protested at any movement.

“Frank? _Frank_!” I heard Bob calling, my throat was too dry for me to actually call back. I croaked in reply as he eventually found me, he hauled me up and tried to hurry me along. “Hurry up Frank, the cops are everywhere.”

“I...can’t...my...lungs...” I panted, feeling faint.

“Oh no Iero, you’re not quitting on me now.” He hissed, half-carrying me to the edge of the parking lot. I could hear the cops running around trying to shut the roads, some of them spotted us.

“Hey! Hey over there, that guy has a gun!” one of them shouted. I realised that Bob still had the rifle strapped to his back.

“Fuck. Frank, you have to _run_.” Bob muttered “Save yourself, I’ll hold them back.” He pushed me off his shoulder and ran in a different direction to draw the cops away from me and the van. I urged my weak legs to run towards the van, I could see Gerard throwing a head fit as he saw all of this unfolding.

I somewhat stumbled into the open back doors of the van, someone’s arms wrapped around me as I heard the doors slam shut and the engine rumble into life.

“What about Bob?” Ray asked.

“What are our options?” Gerard muttered from nearby, I looked up and found Ray’s worried face as I lay in his hold, panting like a marathon runner.

“...if we attempt to save him...and fail...we’re screwed. If we leave him, you know what’ll happen.” Mikey replied.

“We have to.” I blurted out. “...we can’t just leave him...”

Gerard looked at me, his eyes showed the conflict in his mind, his love for all of us but his fear of what could happen to us.

“...they’re closing the roads off as we speak...” Mikey murmured as he drove us around the alleyways. “If we are going to save him then we need to hurry the fuck up.”

I kept looking at Gerard, he had gone pale and looked like he was going to vomit. “Drive. Get us out of here then.”

“But Bob!” I protested. “We can’t leave him to get arrested or...or...”

“Frank. We don’t have a choice. If we get caught then we’re done for.” He simply said. “Get in contact with him via radio, tell him to make for the gas station north of the city.”

Mikey nodded and tapped a control panel mounted on the dashboard, he muttered quietly as he slammed the accelerator of the van down. I wanted to scream at Gerard for abandoning Bob like this but my throat was burning still and I was running on adrenaline alone now.

“…He’s slowly making his way out of the police watch zone, but it’ll be hard for him to get out of the city without being caught.” Mikey reported as we headed for the gas station. “I wouldn’t hold out much hope, plus we haven’t exactly escaped the attention of the cops.”

I had broken away from Ray’s hold and curled up in the far corner of the van, the entire chain of events replaying in my head, how if it wasn’t for my stupid shitty lungs then we wouldn’t be in this mess, Bob would still be with us, he wouldn’t be being hunted down right now.

Gerard kept casting worried glances at me but I couldn’t care less, I didn’t see how he could just _leave_ Bob like that, just leave him to fend off the cops by himself…it didn’t make any sense to me. Sure we weren’t in any kind of position to get caught ourselves but it was _Bob_ , our friend, the guy who taught me everything I knew about killing, the guy who kept us in order when even Mikey didn’t care what we were doing…

“Where is he?” Ray asked quietly as we sat in the deserted gas station. Mikey shrugged and turned on the radio, tuning it to a 24 hour news station.

“ _Police are continuing their search for the gunmen who shot the Governor of Washington today, one was seen running towards uptown Seattle whilst the other’s whereabouts are unknown. It is thought that the two were part of a group hired to kill the Governor._ ” The radio babbled quickly. “ _The Governor’s condition has been reported as critical although no formal statement has been given._ ”

“Damn it.” Gerard muttered.

“What about Bob?” I asked

“Frank shut up.” Mikey muttered, I could feel the annoyed vibes coming off of him. “We’re working on it.”

I hunched over my knees and sighed, I was on the verge of sobbing violently about everything. If only my lungs weren’t hopeless. Bob would’ve made it to the van. We wouldn’t be here now anxiously waiting for any sign of him.

“ _Police have sealed off all routes out of the city and are conducting a thorough search of the city, residents are urged to stay indoors and to not approach anyone acting suspiciously but to call the police immediately._ ”

 Everyone was silent. I wanted to be sick. Mikey muttered something nondescript before getting out of the van, Ray followed suit, Gerard just sat and looked at me.

“…don’t blame yourself Frankie.” He said.

“Why the fuck not?” I snapped. “It is my fault after all. My fucking lungs, my fucking existence.”

“Frankie…”

“No Gerard. Bob is out there being hunted like an animal and it’s all my fault.” I whimpered. “It’s all my fault…”

He was quiet, the radio droned on in the background. I hunched over my  knees and curled into the piles of stuff in the back of the van, I became aware of one of the bags vibrating. After digging around in it for a while I found the ominous phone that Mikey’s always melded to. The ID flashed on the screen; _Boss_.

I looked to Gerard who had gone pale, before he could do anything I pressed the green button and listened to a low gravelly voice answer;

“I trust you haven’t jeopardized the mission Michael.”

“…I’m not Michael.” I muttered, my eyes trained on Gerard who was staring at me with wide eyes, shaking his head and mouthing ‘no’ repeatedly.

“…oh?”

“I’m Frank.”

“…Frank…”

“The kidnapped kid?” I spat. “The kid being trained to kill.”

“…ah yes…the asset.” He said slowly, I could hear the grin on his face. “…nice to finally talk to you.”

“…the feeling isn’t mutual.” I replied.

“I’m sorry to hear that Frank. Tell me, what’s happening right now? Why could I be calling you?”

“…we’re…we’re waiting.” I answered, suddenly realising just _who_ I was talking to and how bad this could be.

“Waiting for what Frank? Shouldn’t you be getting out of the state by now hmm?”

I swallowed. I couldn’t say we had lost Bob, I couldn’t say that I had caused us to postpone our getaway.

“…why don’t you tell me why we’re killing people on your behalf? Do you really have that many enemies? Surely killing them would be more satisfying if you did it.” I babbled, watching Gerard frantically waving to attract Mikey’s attention. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’d sure like to kill the people I hate too but why are you getting us to do it when you have a bone to pick with them?”

“…you have guts Frank.” He replied slowly. “I’ve not been spoken back to like that by anyone. Frank you do realise how your life rests in my hands correct?”

I swallowed again. “I know about Pete’s group.”

“Frank, give the phone to me.” Mikey’s low voice commanded as he opened the back door of the van.

“Oh…they told you? I guess you’re earning their trust already.”

“I know about what you did to Gerard.” I spat. “You sick bastard.”

“Frank it would be a bad idea to make remarks like that.” I could hear the glee in his voice. “Especially as I can order a similar demise for you as I did for Pete.”

Mikey prised my hands away from the phone and glared at me, I could feel the iciness of his stare as he muttered into the phone.

“No sir. He won’t. We’re currently restocking supplies and then we’ll be on the way out heading to Arizona.”

I glared back at him, shoving past him as I got out the van. Ray looked at me questioningly as I kicked the stones of the dried ground away. I could now hear Mikey and Gerard arguing loudly from inside the van, I sat down on a bench overlooking the city and sighed. Ray joined me and sighed too.

“…what are we going to do about Bob?” I asked quietly, staring at the skyscrapers of Seattle.

“…I dunno Frank. It’s in their hands now, if Bob can get out here by this evening then we’ll hit the road and get the hell out of this state…but…if he doesn’t…I dunno what they’re planning.” Ray replied. “…I would say don’t worry about it but I know that’s a waste of time.”

I nodded. “…it’s all my fault Ray…”

“No it’s not Frank, it’s not your fault, Bob knew what he was doing, he knew that if he let you both get caught then it would be twice as bad. So he took one for the team effectively. He knows how much Gerard loves you, that if you got caught then who knows what would’ve happened…my best guess is that Gerard would go back to drinking heavily…Mikey would struggle to keep him alive…”

“And you?”

He was silent for a few moments. “…I’d just…I dunno…I’d wanna stay and help but there’s only so much I can do.”

“…mm…”

It seemed like an eternity passed, the sun was beginning to set, we could hear the police sirens echoing from the city. Mikey and Gerard had stopped arguing at long last, maybe they were just being quieter.

 


	12. Chapter 12

**Gerard’s P.O.V**

“So that’s the plan then?” I asked.

“Yep.” Mikey replied. “It’s the only one that’s gonna work I reckon.”

“…but…there are cops all over the city…”

“I know Gerard but it’s the only way we’re gonna save him.”

I nodded. “And we’re just gonna be able to find spare clothing how?”

“We aren’t, we have balaclavas and sunglasses. That’s it.”

I nodded again. “So when are we gonna do it?”

“Tonight.”

“okay. Let’s brief Frank and Ray then.”

Mikey nodded and left the van, returning a few minutes later with Ray and Frank in tow, they all sat in between the gun cases and gym bags of junk. I looked to Mikey expectantly, he just blinked back at me.

“Okay, we have a plan to get Bob back.” I sighed.

“Really?” Frank asked “How?”

“…we’re going to go and get him…simple.”

“That’s your plan? For us to just drive back into Seattle and pick him up?” Ray exclaimed. “That sounds so smart Gerard.”

“But there’s a twist.” Mikey uttered. “We’re going to be in disguise, Bob’s currently hiding out in the downtown area. Literally all we have to do is get in there, get him and get out.”

Frank looked to me, his eyes wide with hope, Ray seemed deep in thought as he mulled over our plan.

“…so what you’re saying is; we go in as ordinary citizens, find a wanted criminal and leave the city…” Ray murmured, drumming his fingers against his knee.

“..not exactly…” Mikey replied.

“Elaborate?”

Mikey brought out a map of the city’s outskirts. “We go in from this bridge here.” He pointed to a crossing on the map. “Travel down the expressway towards this neighbourhood, Bob is residing near this place. Cops will be all over the city still and they’ll be really suspicious as we don’t have enough time to repaint the van.”

Ray nodded, looking at the map. “We could come in from the north and go by alleyways. It’ll take a little longer but we’ll avoid the more built up areas.”

“Yeah I guess…we have a few more hours yet. But there’s one other thing; code names.”

“Code…names?” Frank squeaked. “Like…spy movie type code names?”

“yes Frank.” Mike answered. “Just incase someone overhears us.”

“...so…how do we pick ‘em?”

“…Fun Ghoul.” I muttered.

“Huh?” Frank asked

“Your name; Fun Ghoul.”

He nodded. “Why?”

“You’re birthday is Halloween and you’re very excitable.” I explained.

“What about me?” Ray asked.

“…I dunno…” I said. “…you’re the one driving a lot…uh…”

“Jet Star.” Frank suggested.

Ray nodded. “Sounds good. Mikey?”

“Kobra Kid.” Mikey muttered, looking at the map. “Everyone’s kid brother but as deadly as a kobra.”

“…you’ve thought this out…” Frank remarked. A small smirk spread across my brother’s face. “Okay then, put us out of our misery Gerard.”

“…Party Poison.” I said quietly. “…I think it’s pretty obvious…”

They all nodded. Mikey rolled the map back up and dove into one of the bags, he took out four balaclavas. He tossed a dark blue one with white stars on it to Frank, a black one with pink dots to Ray and a white one with red dots to me, leaving a yellow one with a black ‘x’ for himself.

“…and these are?” Frank asked, inspecting his newly acquired accessory.

“Our disguises.” Mikey replied.

“…okay…”

“We’re all going to have ear pieces again. If we get separated; keep them on and keep talking.” Mikey instructed, taking control of the situation. “Hopefully it won’t come to that but we need to be prepared for it this time.”

“How long do we have?” Ray asked.

“four hours.” I replied. “So let’s clean the handguns and prepare to move out.”

 

**~***~**

**Frank’s P.O.V**

Words could not describe the uncomfortable silence in the van as dusk fell. Ray drummed his fingers on the steering wheel as Mikey radioed Bob checking on his location and cross-referenced it on the map, Gerard was staring at a handgun in his hands, flipping the safety on and off repeatedly with a quiet click. I looked at the gun I had been given, it was newer than the others but not exactly in pristine condition. I sighed, the earpiece lodged in my ear felt too big and hurt a little, the thin cable trailed down my shirt to a small clip on the waistband of my jeans and dug into my back.

“…okay Bob…we’re about to leave, Kobra Kid out.” Mikey muttered. He nodded at Ray who started the van’s engine. A small buzzing started in my ear before I heard Mikey’s voice. “Okay guys, this is just testing the system.”

“Got it.” I muttered.

“I hear ya bro.” Gerard replied.

“Affirmative.” Ray answered.

“Good, as I said, keep them on and do not take them out for any reason.”

We started making our way towards the city, streetlights streamed horrible light through the windshield of the van, I pulled my bandana over my face and put my sunglasses on, Gerard followed suit. Mikey muttered directions to Ray which crackled in my aching ear, I could make out Gerard stroking the barrel of the handgun in the poor light.

“…ready Party Poison?” I asked.

“Totally Fun Ghoul.” He replied. “You know how this shit is going to go down when we get there?”

“Yep.” I muttered, clicking the safety off on my own gun. “I just hope Bob’s prepared for this…”

“It’ll be your baptism of fire…or in this case…bullets.”

“Going down in a hail of bullets.”

“We’re not going down you idiots.” Mikey snapped over the radio. “And hopefully we won’t have to kill anyone.”

The van slowed, the streetlights became a rarity, a sign that we were close to our rendezvous. I could hear sirens following us.

“Shit…they know we’re here.” Mikey muttered. “Okay you two will have to bail out the side door and find Bob. Ray and I will try and draw the cops away.”

“You mean Jet Star?” Ray corrected.

“Whatever. Are we clear? Find Bob and radio us your location.”

“Acknowledged Kobra Kid, Party Poison out.” Gerard declared standing up and extending a hand to me.

“Same here.” I replied, taking Gerard’s hand and standing with him by the sliding door, he gave my hand a reassuring squeeze as his other hand made for the handle.

“Ready?” he whispered, I didn’t need the radio to hear him. I nodded in reply. The door slid open, the sound of sirens got insanely louder as the wind rushed inside the van. Mikey climbed over the seat and put a hand on both our shoulders.

“Jet Star’s making a hard right at the next opportunity, bail then, I’ll shut the door behind you.”

“Got it.” We both replied.

“Good luck. Don’t shoot unless necessary.”

The van lurched violently, we took that as our cue and launched ourselves out the van. I heard the door shut as the tires squealed against the road. I hit the ground with a thud, Gerard quickly helped me off the ground and bundled us into an alleyway as a cop car went screaming past; sirens and lights blaring.

“Are you okay?” Mikey’s voice crackled.

“Yeah we are Kobra. Where’s Bob residing?” Gerard asked, pressing a finger to his earpiece.

“Two blocks south.” Mikey replied.

“Got it. Party Poison out.”

We checked our guns and then started heading towards Bob’s location, dodging into alleyways and doorways everytime a cop car drove past. We could hear the police chopper overhead too and had to repeatedly sprint across roads to avoid being caught in the spotlight. I slouched against a wall breathing heavily.

“Fun Ghoul?” Gerard asked. “You okay dude?”

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine…just a little breathless…”

“…Kobra come in, Kobra I need a location check.” Gerard called.

“…We’re currently five blocks away with the cops on our tail, what’s happening?” Mikey’s voice replied.

“I’m fucking unfit that’s what’s happening.” I muttered. I heard him sigh.

“Fra-I mean Fun Ghoul, pull yourself together and breathe dammit. Bob’s waiting and hiding a 45 calibre rifle from the public is near impossible apparently.”

I rolled my eyes, “I know that Kobra.”

“Well hurry up, we’re going around in circles at the moment and the cops aren’t stupid.”

“Yes yes we get it Kobra.” Gerard sighed, tugging my arm. “We’re moving again.”

We got back to making our way to Bob, cop cars were everywhere and we were held up a lot in dark alleyways. Whilst we were waiting for a long line of cops to pass by I heard a muttering from behind us;

“…you think we can take them?”

“Yeah…one’s quite short and the other looks pretty weak…”

I tugged on Gerard’s sleeve and gestured behind us, he bought his gun out in front of him as he peered into the darkness, two guys were walking towards us, I saw the glimmer of a knife.

“…they have a blade Party.” I muttered.

“I see it Ghoul.” He replied. “Prepare to shoot and run.”

“Got it.” I bought my own gun out on front of me and stood next to him.

“Hey, you two fags.” One of them called. “Having a make out session in our alleyway were you?”

Gerard raised his arm, we didn’t waste any time in shooting one of them, I shot at the other. They lay groaning in the darkness. “Run.” He said to me. I nodded and followed him out of the alleyway, sirens were approaching quickly, he pulled me into an abandoned shop and pushed me onto the floor.

“We’ll hide here for a few minutes.” He whispered, stroking my head lightly.

“What did you guys do?!” Mikey exploded down the radio at us. “We just heard over the news radio that shots were fired near where you two are, what the fuck did you do?!”

“Exterminated two problems.” Gerard replied, staring into my eyes. “We’re fine, getting closer to Bob.”

“Are you even listening? Cops are flocking to that area now you idiot!”

Gerard sighed and pulled me off the floor and out the door, he ran flat out down the street, we were surrounded by derelict apartment buildings. Eventually we found the right one and ran up the stairs lit only by cheap light bulbs. I shoulder charged every door we came to and burst into room after room of mould and broken furniture. Gerard ran ahead and called for Bob repeatedly, he got a reply a few floor above us. Taking the stairs two at a time we found him on the top floor.

“What took you so long?” He asked, getting off the floor. “Been sat here for the past six hours.”

“Geez, sorry Bob.” Gerard replied. “Anyway, we need to get the fuck out of here.”

“Kobra come in.” I said, pressing my earpiece.

“Ghoul? Got him?”

“Yup. Feel free to come and get us.”

“Well we would if you hadn’t of gunned down two hooligans and disturbed the police even further.” Mikey remarked. “…we’re on the outskirts of the city, exit the building and tell me what you see.”

I relayed the instructions to Gerard and Bob, we made our way down the stairs and out the fire escape. Sirens echoed around us as we lingered in the alleyway.

“I see…apartment buildings, new ones…a Dunkin’ Donuts too.” I told Mikey.

“Okay…go past the apartments, turn right then left.”

I nodded, Gerard set off in front of me, we followed Mikey’s instructions and came to a bridge over a near deserted road.

“We’re coming along that road, get down to road level and be prepared to run and jump into the van, we still have a cop car tailing us.”

I looked wide-eyed at Gerard, Bob simply set off down the steep embankment by himself. “Well, here goes nothing.” Gerard sighed following suit, I reluctantly followed him.

“Hold on, how the hell are we _all_ meant to get into the van whilst it’s still moving?” I asked half to Mikey and half to Gerard.

“Back doors.” Mikey replied. “I’ll open them, Jet Star is putting as much distance between us and the cop car but you’ll have to be fucking quick.”

“I could jump from the bridge…” I muttered.

“What?!” Gerard exclaimed. “You could break your fucking legs!”

“I know that idiot!” I snapped. “But if I jump, hypothetically, you and Bob will have an easier time getting into the van.”

“…Frankie, you could seriously break something.” Gerard sternly said, breaking away from the use of codenames. “And we can’t just take you to a fucking hospital…”

“I know Gerard.” I muttered. “But I’m prepared to take one for the team.”

“Ghoul, seriously. Think this through.” Mikey remarked.

“…how far away are you anyway Kobra?”

“About five minutes.”

“Fine.” I scrambled back up the embankment.

“Frankie get your butt back here now!” Gerard snapped. “You’re insane!” he reached for my ankle but I hauled myself back up onto the bridge. I could see some headlights down the road heading for us, I climbed over the railings and tried to ignore Gerard’s protests from below as they approached.

“You’re insane…” Bob muttered.

I shook my head, my attention was on the police car pursuing the van, I reached for my gun out of instinct. Gerard and Bob turned and waited for the van to get closer. The tires were screeching, through the earpiece I could hear Mikey and Ray muttering back and forth.

“I hope you know what you’re doing Ghoul.” Gerard growled as the time for them to jump in came closer.

“…I have a vague idea.” I replied.

“Get ready guys, the cops are gaining.” Mikey warned as the van’s side door slid open. I was stood right on the edge of the bridge, the height made me feel a little uneasy but I didn’t have time to change my mind now.

Gerard and Bob started running as the van got ever closer, they disappeared inside, I stepped off the bridge and landed heavily on the roof, pulling my gun to face the cop car tailing us.

“Drive.” I muttered as I started firing at the windshield. I could feel myself slipping against the roof as Ray increased the speed but I put that thought aside and kept firing, aiming for the tires and the headlights that illuminated us. More bullets fired out of the open back doors, the cop car careered off the side of the road after it lost a tire, I felt a hand on my leg; Bob was hanging precariously out of the side door and clinging to me to prevent me from slipping off the roof.

“You’re an idiot Iero.” He muttered as he rolled his eyes.

“I know.” I replied, shuffling backwards so he could pull me back in. the back doors slammed closed as did the side door when we got back inside. Gerard seized me from Bob and pinned me against the floor.

“Frank you fucking idiot! What were you thinking?!” he shouted. “You could’ve been shot at! You could’ve slipped off the roof and gotten ran over or caught!”

“I know Gerard!” I shouted back, aware that he had tears in his eyes. “But I felt like I should do something to help as I was the one who caused this fucking shit.”

“…Frankie…just…ugh…” Gerard sighed, “You just fucking gave me a heart attack…”

I pulled his lips down to mine and ran a hand through his hair. He whimpered slightly but kissed me back, biting slightly on my lip as he got rougher. His tears fell onto my face as he relaxed on top of me, his kisses turning into sobs. I wrapped my arms around him as he lay not saying anything just sobbing.

**~***~**

It was dark outside by the time Gerard finally got off me, his eyes were puffy and red, I swiped away a few more tears that were trickling down his cheeks. Bob and Mikey had exchanged seats and now the younger Way sat watching us as he put away the last of the guns that needed cleaning.

“…are you okay?” he asked Gerard.

Gerard nodded, he turned to me and said; “I’m sorry…I just…I just don’t know what I’d do if I lost you Frankie…”

I nodded and hugged him, he was trembling slightly but wrapped his arms around me. “It’s okay Gerard. I’m sorry for making you worry but…I just had to do it.”

Mikey scoffed slightly, he put the gun in its case and moved over to us, he tore me away from Gerard’s arms and pulled me into his hold. “He’s not the only one who cares about you Frank…” he muttered.

I was a little unsure as to how I was supposed to react to the normally cold Mikey hugging me tightly. I patted his shoulder and looked to Gerard who had slumped against the wall of the van and fallen asleep. Mikey stilled against me, he became heavy and didn’t respond when I said his name.

“…god dammit…” I sighed as I leaned back next to Gerard, Mikey clinging to me like a baby koala. I rested my head on Gerard’s shoulder, he shuffled closer to me and leaned on my head, muttering something about coffee.

I saw Bob turn around and see us, then his phone’s camera flash blinded me. I blinked and flipped my middle finger up at him, he chuckled quietly. I then decided that I might as well try to get some sleep whilst I was being used as a pillow. The rumble of the van slowly lulled me into a dreamless sleep.


	13. Chapter 13

**Gerard’s P.O.V**

I woke up with a sore neck, I opened my eyes to find myself leaning heavily on Frank’s still sleeping body and Mikey fast asleep in Frank’s lap. A small pang of jealousy struck me when I noticed how close to Frank’s crotch my younger brother was but I laughed quietly when I thought of how he’d react when he woke up.

I eased myself away from them both and went to find out where we were exactly. “Yo Ray what’s happening?”

“We’re just approaching the infamous Nevada desert.” He replied with a yawn. “I’m gonna pull over at some point and take a breather.”

“Okay, I’ll take that opportunity to um…bond with Frank…after all that’s happened…you know…” I replied.

Bob grinned, it always worried me when he grinned. He dug out his phone and showed me a picture of Frank with both me and Mikey asleep on him last night. “Oh I know.” He remarked.

I felt myself blush slightly and just playfully slapped Bob on the shoulder. “..y-yeah…okay…” I uttered, moving back into the gloomy van. I rummaged through one of the bags and found the sketch pad I had brought with me and a pencil, I sat across from Frank and Mikey and started to draw them.

Line by line the image started to take shape, Frank’s small build; his face slack as he breathed heavily, his hands flat against the floor of the van, the way his hair fell across his eyes. Then Mikey’s thin body lying on top of him, his face tense, fists clenched but at the same time he looked relaxed, almost perfectly still as he slept. I wasn’t even aware the van had stopped until Ray waved his hand in front of my face.

“Cool drawing.” He remarked as I stood up. “Gonna finish it at some point?”

“Yeah…” I replied. “I guess we’re at a gas station?”

He nodded. “Bob’s gone to get supplies, there’s a restroom and that so you might wanna wake them up.”

I poked Mikey in the shoulder, he opened his eyes slowly and looked around; clearly disorientated for a few moments. Realisation set in and he blushed slightly, he looked to Ray with panic in his eyes.

“R-Ray…I…it’s not what you…” he stuttered, standing up groggily. Ray caught him as he stumbled over.

“It’s okay, I understand…” he mumbled into Mikey’s ear. “Don’t worry, you can make it up to me later if you’re that upset about it.”

I shuddered, not wanting to think about my younger brother doing things I’d rather be doing with Frank. I grabbed the younger boy’s hand and pulled him up, he startled awake and fell into my arms, I just led him out of the van into the morning sunlight without much explanation.

“Come on Frankie, let’s freshen up in the restroom.” I whispered, reaching down and squeezing his ass, he squeaked slightly and nodded, still drowsy but more than willing to be led away.

I shoved him against the wall of the bathroom stall, the narrow space felt humid already, I kissed his neck, sucking slightly on the skin. He trembled underneath me, my hand slipped under the waistband of his jeans and squeezed the warm cock that was already half-hard, I teasingly ran my fingers along the sensitive skin, he practically melted against me.

“Gerard…fuck…” he gasped, thrusting in my hold. “…fuck…”

I smirked and kissed his neck again, pulling down his jeans and boxers in one movement, exposing his heated skin and making him gasp again. I kneeled down on the tiled floor and took in his scent, gently kissing the skin on his thighs and around the base of his cock. My tongue flicked against his balls, he moaned and thrust against me, my hands flew to his hips to hold him back against the stall as I kissed the head of his hard-on.

“…patience Frankie…” I whispered, blowing slightly over the damp skin and making him shudder. He threaded a hand through my hair and gently pushed, I went along with it; taking the head into my mouth and sucking slightly, he moaned loudly. I gradually sucked more of him in until my nose was buried in the little curls of hair on his crotch. I could feel him filling out as I stilled, his cock in my mouth and my fingers rubbing circles on his hips.

“…pl-please Gerard…” he whimpered.

I laughed, the vibrations going through his skin and making him moan loudly, his hand clenched into a fist in my hair and tugged, wanting me to move. I started bobbing my head back and forth, running my tongue up his full length, making him quiver under my hold.

“Gerard..I’m…I’m gonna…” he panted after a while.

I pulled off of him and let him cum over my face, he moaned loud and needy before slumping down against the stall panting. I reached down and started stroking myself, Frank watching me with lidded eyes, biting his lip, his hand twitching.

“…do you wanna?” I asked between moans.

He shook his head. “I wanna see you get yourself off.” He growled.

His tone was enough to make all the blood rush to my cock, my strokes became faster and harder, my fingers twisting to make myself breathless. His heated gaze made me want to cum so badly, I became desperate and spat on my hand to get more movement. Frank continued staring at me, he was half-hard again just from watching me, our eyes met and he winked. I went over the edge, spilling into my hand and onto the floor and groaning loudly.

After a few moments I became aware just what had just happened. I stood up and adjusted my clothing, I helped Frank up too and kissed him sloppily.

“…you need to wash your face dude.” He sniggered. “You got my cum all over you.”

I felt myself blush again. We stumbled out of the stall, I washed my face off and tried to sort out my hair which was frankly a wasted effort. Frank giggled from beside me.

“What?” I asked, my voice hitching.

“…you got it on your shirt too.” He smirked, pointing to a white stain. “And your voice is fucked up.”

“It’s not!” I squawked.

“Yes it is Gee.” He replied, kissing my neck. “You shouldn’t have teased me for so long.”

 I opened my mouth to say something in reply but he leaned in and kissed me, sucking on my tongue as his hand reached down to my jeans. I slapped his hand away and pulled back, he smirked at me and slapped my ass.

“…just wait until the next stop..” he muttered in my ear. “I’m going to get my revenge.”

I shivered slightly, what had happened to the innocent boy we picked up in Jersey? Who was this guy with me in the restroom who had just watched me jerk off? I wasn’t saying I didn’t like it but he just seemed such a different person to back when we kidnapped him.

We left the restroom and found Bob in the magazine section of the store, he was grumbling about the van being locked from the inside and forcing him to stay in here until it was unlocked. Frank and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows; knowing exactly why it was locked.

“…we need to do a laundry stop.” Bob muttered, casting a glance at the stain on my shirt. “…especially if you’re going to be doing god knows what at every service station we arrive at.”

Frank quietly laughed as he stalked down one of the other aisles, leaving me with a suspicious Bob flicking through a magazine. I tried to seem calm and collected but I doubt I achieved it.

**~***~**

**Frank’s P.O.V**

It was a good hour later when we finally got let back into the van, I resisted the urge to point out how red Mikey’s lips were and how creased his clothing was but I did raise my eyebrows at him when he tried to say something and just squeaked.

“…so now what?” I asked once Bob had finished grumbling about this and that. We were still sat in the gas station and not intending to go anywhere it seemed.

“…I haven’t heard from the boss since…somebody decided to try and argue with him.” Mikey muttered, his voice hoarse.

“Sorry…I just…got carried away.” I murmured, staring at my hands.

“It’s fine Frankie. It was understandable.” Gerard answered quickly, taking my hands in his. “It’s perfectly fine.”

“But it’s not fine. You know that.” Mikey sighed. “Boss doesn’t like it when people challenge him which is exactly what Frank did.”

“…is it really that bad?” I asked. “Is he gonna…um…”

“No, no he won’t Frankie.” Gerard replied, looking across to Mikey with a warning look.

“Gerard…you can be blunt with me. I’m not exactly a kid anymore. Just give me the facts.” I stated.

He blinked at me, a mixture of shock and despair in his eyes, he let go of my hands and ran his fingers through his hair. “…okay he might.” He muttered.

“More like will.” Mikey sighed.

“And it’ll be messy.” Ray added, settling his hand on Mikey’s knee.

“…so what do we do?” I asked. “Is there nowhere we can go where he won’t be able to reach us?”

I shook my head. “Not even Elena’s house. I mean, the best we can do is just try not to annoy him further.”

“Would apologizing help?”

“No!” Gerard exploded. “No no no, you must never let him know that you’re submissive.”

“That’s the worst you could do.” Mikey stated. “He’s a sadist. Letting him know that you’re submissive would seal your fate, as it would ours.”

“…what would he do?” I asked.

“Who knows. Probably…what he did to Pete’s group…” Ray murmured, casting a cautious glance to Mikey who simply curled into his hold at the mention of the other group.

“Anyway, we’re not at that point yet. I figure we should just head along the southern states, lay low for a while until we receive some kind of instruction.” Gerard said, directing the conversation back to a safer subject.

“Sounds good to me.” Bob muttered from the driver’s seat.

Mikey nodded, burying his face in Ray’s shirt and sighing heavily. I pulled Gerard closer to me, sensing that Bob was starting to get ready to depart. Gerard studied my eyes, his lips trembling slightly, I lightly stroked his cheek, feeling the skin heat up under my fingers.

The van jolted into life, Gerard lost his balance and felt on top of me. I heard Mikey and Ray snigger as he quickly tried to regain his composure. The van continued to bump slightly out of control as we drove over uneven ground, Gerard couldn’t seem to stay upright; repeatedly falling into my lap time and time again.

Eventually he admitted defeat and stayed with his head resting on my crotch. I ran my fingers through his hair, pulling slightly at the crimson strands. He softly moaned as I continues to pull slightly tighter, out of the corner of my eye I saw Mikey nuzzling Ray’s neck; placing small kisses to the older male’s jawline. I laughed quietly to myself, Gerard turned his head to look up at me questioningly, I shook my head and lightly poked his nose, running my finger up the bridge of his nose gently. His eyes fluttered, I repeated the motion, he reacted in the same way. After a while his eyes slipped shut, I held back a small laugh as he relaxed against me further.

He seemed to fall asleep in my lap as we started driving back over a surfaced road, a comfortable silence fell in the van as Bob drove us along into the midday sun.

**~***~  
Gerard’s P.O.V**

A few months passed where we didn’t do too much in the way of killing. Mikey said that the boss had his thoughts focused elsewhere so wasn’t giving us anything that required his supervision. That seemed likely after Frank’s small outburst at him.

We had very few jobs that required all of us to play an active role, this meant that sometimes Ray and Mikey would saunter off to a hotel room for a night whilst Frank and I would do a job and collect the pay, we’d then meet up at an agreed point the next morning, we weren’t exactly short of money for these kinda of things – not that the quality of the hotel was ever a question, all it had to provide was a decent sized bed.

Weeks went by with no communication from our boss, only the small go-between people who assigned us jobs actually meant we had to do stuff rather than escape from this crazy nightmare. We hadn’t returned anywhere near New Jersey and weren’t really going to start now, the Floridian coast was good enough for us as we sat in the back of the van with the back doors wide open to let the cool ocean air into the humid space.

I hated the June heat but we had stupidly hemmed ourselves into this state with poor organisation on Mikey’s part. We were quite mellowed out though; Bob wasn’t too enthused by the heat either but he had the AC where he was, I always seemed to have Frank clinging to my already sweaty body and his weight seemed to be 90% sweat too. Mikey and Ray had retreated somewhere cooler, I still don’t know _where_ exactly or _how_ they slipped off without me noticing but it happened.

“Gerard...” Frank mumbled, nuzzling my slick neck. “I’m hot.”

“So am I Frankie.” I replied, brushing a piece his long fringe out of his eyes. God we all needed to freshen up so badly, have a decent shower and maybe a haircut or two, but alas we were getting low on money and so it wasn’t going to happen any time soon.

“Where’s Mikey?” he whined.

“How the hell should I know?” I muttered. Whilst Frank was still acting like a pubescent teenage girl half the time he had actually _grown up_ a little. A few more kills had hardened him up, he hardly had nightmares now, which whilst a little disturbing was also a little comforting too, he occasionally went quiet if we started talking about ‘home’ or our families but on the most part he was pretty impassive about it all.

He still had his childish nature about him though.

“Gerard...I’m bored...” he whined.

“Well what do you want me to do about it?” I asked, looking down into those brown orbs that stared up at me.

“...entertain me?” he smirked.

“...it’s too hot.” I sighed, leaning back against the van wall and closing my eyes. “Too hot to move and give you a blowjob.”

“Gerard...” Frank grumbled, I felt him pressing his lips to my cheek. “Mm...Gerard...”

I giggled slightly, he straddled my lap, our crotches rubbing against each other as he kissed my lips. The heat in the van seemed to increase slightly as he got friskier, nibbling at my lip and growling quietly.

“Gerard...” he breathed when he broke away.

“Oh my precious Frankie...” I sighed, running a hand through his greased hair.

“Mm...we need another hotel night Gerard...we haven’t had one in ages...” he gasped.

“I know Frankie, but we need more money first and we’re simply not getting enough jobs.”

He made a small disappointed grunt and kissed me again, rougher this time. “Get Mikey to get us more jobs then.” He murmured.

I laughed. “I wish it was that easy Frankie...I really do.”

He sighed and settled against me, I let him relax against my sticky body, the moisture in the air making it uncomfortable. I sighed heavily, blowing a piece of my faded red fringe out of my eyes and willing myself to sleep through this heat.

Mikey and Ray reappeared when it got a little later, it was still stifling hot but I wasn’t sweating like crazy anymore, they even bought food with them. We sat and ate whatever they had bought – it was food and we were practically broke, there wasn’t much complaining – we then turned our attention to what our goal was for tomorrow.

“Still haven’t heard from the boss?” I asked, stroking Frank’s hair as he lay his head in my lap.

“Nope. I tried calling the HQ to see if there was a reason why but I couldn’t even get through to them.” Mikey replied, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “I don’t like how quiet it’s been.”

“Me neither. We’re broke and on the run still, I can’t see how we’re going to survive for much longer.” Bob muttered.

We feel into silence, we hadn’t been out of work for this long in a while and it was certainly unsettling. I estimated us being able to keep going for another week or so but after that things would get more desperate.

“You know, we could go back to HQ and ask in person.” I suggested. “We’ve done it before.”

“I dunno. I don’t...” Mikey hesitantly replied. “I mean...it’s a long drive. Do we even have enough money for gas?”

“If we don’t eat then we will.” Frank piped up.

“Frank. We need to eat.” Ray stated.

“I know, we’ll eat when we get there, they can’t just deny us food even if they won’t explain why we aren’t getting jobs.”

“Frank.” Mikey sternly said, his tone sending a slight shiver down my spine. “This isn’t some holiday camp. This is like a fucking death trap.”

“I _know_ Mikey.”

“No you don’t. _You’ve_ never been there. _You_ haven’t heard the sounds of those who’ve betrayed the boss, _you_ didn’t have to watch them be tortured to fucking death right in front of you!” my younger brother exploded, furiously slamming his fist against the floor of the van.

Ray pulled him into a hug as he started sobbing, I looked down at Frank, in the past he would’ve been falling over himself to apologise, now though he just closed his eyes and hissed something to himself through gritted teeth, I looked to Bob who would have a better idea of how much it would cost for us to get there, he shrugged after a few moments.

“Okay. I think we need some sleep.” Ray sighed, pulling Mikey closer to him. I nodded and looked down to Frank, he still had his eyes closed, I thought he was asleep but after a while he stood up and stepped out of the van into the cooling evening. Bob shrugged at me and started to settle down to sleep, Ray and Mikey didn’t seem to be bothered too much by Frank’s silent exit, I sighed lightly and eased myself up and followed him outside.

“...Frankie?” I asked quietly, remembering that the doors to the van were wide open still. Frank nodded slightly as he stared out at the ocean, we had been parked by a fairly deserted part of the coastline for most of the day, now it was getting darker there was no-one around so we could be fairly relaxed.

“What?” he grunted.

“...what’s up?” I asked, standing beside him and looking at the churning waves in front of us.

“Nothin’.” He said. He was lying, I knew he was.

“Really?”

He said nothing, biting his lip instead.

“Come on Frank, I know there’s something up. Talk to me.”

He looked down at his feet, “Is it really that dangerous back at HQ?” he murmured. “Do you really hear people dying?”

“Sometimes.” I replied, I didn’t really want to think about it but I couldn’t ignore Frank’s question. “Sometimes you do, they don’t want us to sometimes but it helps them control us; if we know what’ll happen if we disobey orders then we’ll be less inclined to do so.”

He nodded and looked at me, his eyes showing a slight hint of fear that he daren’t speak of. Frank didn’t like admitting he was scared anymore, he wanted to be seen as brave like Bob, he didn’t want to be the baby of the group anymore. It was partly this which explained why he didn’t really apologise to Mikey, he was exploiting the weakness he knew my younger brother had to show he could be just as dominant, which was probably something that ought to be addressed.

“So it rather depends. I’ve never really gave it much thought to be honest.” I continued.

“I see.” He mumbled.

“Are you nervous? About going there?”

“...a little.”

“It’ll be okay. Mikey makes it out a little worse than it actually is. I don’t blame him to be honest but it isn’t _as_ bad as he says.”

“It’s in Mexico right?”

“Yep.”

“How long will it take?”

“About two days, Bob knows how to get us pass the border safely, I do not.”

“But why-”

“We’re criminals remember? Our faces are still plastered everywhere. Border security staff on _Mexico’s_ borders take no shit from anyone especially known murderers.”

A faint smile ghosted across his lips before he snapped back to the passive expression he had been wearing recently, staring at the ocean again. “I see.”

“Frank is there something else up?” I asked a little quieter, bringing my hand to his cheek and turning his head so I was looking into his eyes. “Tell me, please...”

“Gerard...” he whispered, leaning into my hand. “I-I...”

I wrapped and arm around him but he resisted and turned away. “Frank?”

He shook his head and started walking off.

“Frankie!”

He ignored me. I looked back at the van hoping that one of them would come out to find out what was going on, no-one appeared.

“Frank!” I called to him as he continued walking. I jogged after him, catching him by the arm when I got close enough to him. “Frank...what’s wrong? Tell me...”

“Gerard.” He said, not looking at me. “Gerard...just what exactly are we doing?” he asked.

The question caught me off guard.

“Well?”

“I-I...Frank it’s not like we can stop...you know what that guy said he’d do to me and Mikey...to Ray and Bob...we can’t stop. We don’t have a choice.”

“Yes we do.” He said coldly. “We can run away. Overseas.”

“F-Frank...we can’t do that...we wouldn’t be able to return ever. We don’t have the money to make it anywhere else.”

“Okay. Then we kill the bastard.” It was slightly unnerving how serious he was being. His eyes were cold and emotionless as he bluntly stated his ideas.

“...I...I don’t think we can just waltz into the...I don’t think we can do that Frank.”

“Bullshit. This guy has been breeding killers like fucking crazy and no-one has thought to stop him?”

A brief flash of a memory passed through my mind. Three people had come close to succeeding but they were long gone now. We didn’t even know them but we heard about them from Pete, they were the top group back when this was all just a mysterious organisation to us.

“...someone wanted to...they nearly succeeded...” I murmured, casting my vision out to see.

“What?” he sounded angry. I couldn’t blame him, but then again these three had faded into memories gone by, no-one ever talked about them because they had come so close to killing the boss, that it was taboo.

“...I didn’t tell you because no-one remembers them really.” I replied. “Mikey was about 15 at the time, it wasn’t long before Pete’s group...you know...but three friends who had been doing this for a long time got sick of it and wanted out. They asked the boss if they could stop and just fade into society, he said no. They then decided to try and kill him so that they could stop anyway. They didn’t succeed.”

Frank just stared at me.

“And it became like ‘you-know-who’ from _Harry Potter_ , no-one spoke of them for fear that they’d be accused of trying to carry out their plan again. To avenge them was out of the question.”

“...so they’re dead?”

“We think so. They just disappeared like that.” I said, snapping my fingers to illustrate my point. “The most prominent group around just didn’t exist.”

Frank continued staring at me. “So...”

“So what?”

“...why don’t we try?”

I gave him a wide-eyed look. “Frank. No.”

“Why not?” he said, his tone dropping as his eyes bore into mine.

“Frank, listen to yourself.” I demanded. “You’re asking me why we don’t try to assassinate the bastard who fucking raped me and threatened to do the same to Mikey if I resisted. I can’t put him, Ray, Bob or you through any kind of torture because I _know_ he’ll do everything he can to manipulate us. He’ll try to drive us apart Frank, he’ll kill us all one by one, torture us until even Bob is begging for mercy.” I nearly shouted.

He looked slightly shocked.

“Frank...you only know that he raped me....you don’t know how he made me _feel._ How he made me believe I was a pathetic whore...” I muttered, turning away from him. “He hurt me Frank. The things he did...they...I still have scars...”

He was silent, I ran my hands through my hair, the memories flooding back of that night so long ago, how it hurt me even now, I didn’t want to see him ever again.

“Gee...” Frank whispered, suddenly behind me. He took me by the shoulders and gently turned me to face him. “Gee I’m sorry...” he pulled me into a hug and held me. “Forget I said anything about it. I’m just...life is hard y’know...I’m not used to it.”

I nodded and pulled back, linking his fingers with mine. “I’m sorry too Frankie...but I just can’t put the others through it...if we fail then...” I choked back a sob. I didn’t want to think about it.

“It’s okay. Come on, we all need sleep.” He murmured.


	14. Chapter 14

**Frank’s P.O.V**

“Say Bob...” I sighed as we sat in the empty van, the morning sunlight streaming through the open doors.

“What Iero?” he asked. He rarely called me Frank anymore, always Iero, I never really understood why.

“How would you feel about taking the fight to the boss?” I asked. “Hypothetically of course.”

He looked at me with a slightly bewildered expression. “Well...I’d sure like to give him a knuckle sandwich for screwing one of my closest friends up.”

“Yeah but like...killing him?” I continued. If I could get Bob on board then maybe Gerard would be more inclined to go with my plan. I didn’t see why we should live in fear when we could easily get rid of him once and for all.

“...where are you going with this Iero?” he asked sceptically.

“Nowhere...just hypothesising. How we’re living in fear because of what this guy did to Gerard and what he threatened to do to Mikey.”

Bob made a grunt in reply.

“So would you go for it? If you had the chance?” I asked after a few moments.

“I dunno.” He sighed. “I guess so.”

“Cool.” I nodded and relaxed against the wall of the van, waiting for the others to get back from the first meeting with a client we had had in nearly two weeks. I wasn’t satisfied with how easily Gerard was going along with this guy’s threats, I understood that he had been hurt by the dude but we couldn’t spend the rest of our lives killing people. I had Bob thinking about it now, my next goal would be Ray.

Apparently we had a job now. When the others returned Gerard was smiling for once, these past few weeks had taken a toll on all of us as we got less and less jobs, it had been evident on both Gerard and Mikey’s faces that they were worried about what it could mean for us.

That was behind us now it seemed, Mikey gave Bob the low-down on where we were going and other such things, Gerard flung himself down onto the floor next to me and pulled me into a sloppy kiss.

“W-What’s all this for?” I panted when he eventually released me, not that I didn’t enjoy having him pressing into my mouth.

“We got a job, it’s a reasonable paycheck too.” He simply said, smiling. “$2,000 to shoot someone.”

“Seriously? That much for so little?”

“Yeah.”

“Where to?” I asked, linking my fingers with his.

“Right here in Florida.” He replied, squeezing my hand, he seemed abnormally happy to have a job, maybe the fact we were on the brink of poverty had something to do with it.

“Cool…” I sighed, he simmered down a little and leaned his head on my shoulder. I cut a glance across to Ray who simply raised his eyebrows and beckoned Mikey to sit with him, Mikey met my eyes with a cautious gaze as he relaxed against the older male, I felt as if I ought to apologise for last night’s comments. “Uh Mikes?”

“Yeah Frank?” he replied quietly.

“…I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” He said. “It’s fine Frank, we’re all stressed.”

I didn’t believe that it was _fine_ at all. Mikey usually would give me a passive expression and shrug his shoulders.

“Okay…so when are we shooting this person then?” I asked, resting my head on top of Gerard’s.

“Tonight.” Bob grunted. “Then we _are_ going to HQ.”

“Why Bob?” Mikey asked, his tone low and deadly. There was a slight chance that I may have prompted Bob to actually take the fight to the boss himself, which wasn’t exactly part of the plan, not yet anyway.

“…we ought to go back.”

“Why though Bob? We have a job, we’ll be okay.” Gerard continued. An uneasy feeling started pooling in my stomach, I didn’t want Bob to suggest what I did, I needed to get Ray and Mikey on side first before even thinking about bringing it up again with Gerard.

“The van needs seeing to, I can’t sort it out here, I need supplies that only HQ can offer.” He grumbled.

Mikey looked to Gerard, Gerard looked back at him, I could sense a small brotherly-telepathy going on that I wasn’t part of.

“Yeah okay.” Gerard said after a few moments.

The van choked into life, Bob certainly was right; the van desperately needed a service if nothing else after weeks of being abused. Gerard gave me a brief description of what we were doing; waiting outside someone’s house for a while and simply shooting them, it seemed far too simple for $2,000 but I didn’t complain.

Whilst we were waiting for Bob to fill up the van with fuel so we could make a quick getaway, Gerard pulled me down on top of him and kissed me roughly. I was thankful that Mikey and Ray had gone to the restroom so that I didn’t hear the remarks and sighs at Gerard’s neediness. He moaned into my mouth, my cock twitched slightly in my jeans, it had been a long time since we had some time alone, even now wasn’t the right time. I pinned him down and started biting his neck so he gasped loudly and writhed beneath me.

“F-Frankie…” he gasped as I ran my tongue over the sensitive skin, his hips bucking up against mine.

“Oh my god Gerard…” I growled in reply, I could feel myself growing hard as he pressed his body against mine. He dug his fingers into my back and pulled me down further, I went back to his lips and slid my tongue into his mouth. He made a small whimper as I did so, running a hand through my hair and tugging slightly, he pulled back slightly and stared at me, a small smile stretching across his face.

“…I love you Frankie…” he whispered, pressing his lips softly to mine.

“I love you too Gerard…” I whispered back, nuzzling his neck.

We lay there for a while, enjoying the time together, pressing kisses on each other gently. Bob eventually got back in the driver’s seat, to which Gerard bolted upright and demanded that he let someone else drive for a while. He shrugged and let Gerard climb over behind the steering wheel, I settled in the passenger seat; enjoying actually sitting on a seat for once. Ray and Mikey stumbled back into the van muttering and giggling to themselves, and then we set off for the house in question.

**~***~**

“Are you sure this is it?” I asked Gerard, we were walking down the street, the others waiting in the van for us to radio in with the kill. “I don’t feel that this is right.”

“Quiet Ghoul.” He murmured, we had been using our codenames frequently after we nearly got caught because Gerard starting yelling Mikey’s name down the radio whilst he was doing a job. “I’m just going with what Kobra told me, I wasn’t actually there when he got the job so I don’t really know what going on. Just keep your wits about you and get on with it.”

I sighed and looked around; rows of houses stretched out from us, nothing particularly out of the ordinary but nevertheless I didn’t feel right, something about this was unsettling. The sun was setting quickly leaving an eerie orange glow over everything as we continued walking down the street; guns hidden from immediate view and radio’s plugged in.

“…where the fuck is the house?” I muttered.

“Hold on, there’s a car coming.” Gerard replied, turning away from the road and appearing to be in a deep conversation with me, I nodded at the right places and pretended to be listening to a fascinating point. The car passed and we returned to scouting out the house, we eventually got to the end of the street with a park stretching out in front of us.

“…the fuck?” Gerard asked. “Yo Kobra, an explanation would be nice.”

“What?” Mikey’s voice came through. “What are you talking about?”

“He ain’t here.”

“That’s ridiculous…you sure you’re on the right street?”

“Yes I’m sure, I’m telling you dude, there’s no-one here…you said that the client told you he’d be here.”

“He did.”

Gerard sighed heavily and ran a hand through his straggled hair. “…fine. We’ll turn back and see if he grace’s us with his presence.”

So we did just that; we walked back down the street, watching the front door of each house we passed for any sign of life, I fell two steps behind Gerard and kept checking behind us in case we got jumped. The street remained quiet, no indication of anything out of the ordinary whatsoever.

“Kobra seriously, there’s nothing here.” Gerard snapped. “We’ve been set up.”

“By who though? You met the guy same as I did, he didn’t seem the malicious type.”

“That means shit and you know that. Face it dude, we’re working a dud.”

I was about to ask whether we were calling it quits when I heard footsteps approaching from behind, I whirled around, hand ready to draw my gun. A tall man dressed head to toe in black was running at us with a crowbar in hand.

“Party we got company.” I shouted, drawing my handgun and firing, the bullet bounced off his chest, clearly he was a hardnut.

“He’s got a vest on.” Gerard hissed, tugging my arm back. “Kobra we got problems.” He relayed over the radio.

I spun around and saw two more men running for us. “Shit there’s more.” I shouted, firing hopelessly at them. The squeal of tires gave me a form of hope as our van hurtled around the corner; the side door opened and Ray jumped out with a slightly more-impressive gun than my own.

“Ghoul get down!” Gerard snarled, literally tackling me to the floor, seconds later a crowbar flew over my head, bullets screamed through the air and I felt someone grab me by the wrists. “Get the fuck off him!” I heard Gerard shout, emptying an entire magazine of bullets, the grip on my wrists faltered slightly was quickly reinforced. I fought against them but they were too strong, rope was tied around my wrists and I was blindfolded, gagged and then I felt myself lifted up. Darkness engulfed me.

**~*~  
Gerard’s P.O.V**

Frank was being kidnapped from right in front of me and I could do nothing about it, the goons that were trying to fucking kill me paid little attention to my screams and just carried on swinging crowbars and baseball bats, their bulletproof vests protecting them from the gunfire. Mikey had managed to get some headshots but not enough to save Frank. The other van screamed off into the night, we disposed of the last of the goons finally and just stared at each other, processing what had just happened.

“…who…the _fuck_ was that?” I exploded, fisting my hair as I clutched my head. “Who the fuck set us up and where have they taken him?”

“…my guess would be HQ…” Ray murmured. “The boss-man…he wants to draw us back…and he knows how much Frank means to us…”

I hated to admit it but Ray was right. Bob punched a new dent in the van and kicked the wheel, Mikey stared at the nine or ten bodies around us, we hadn’t realised just how many goons ended up there until now.

“…and so he’s drawing us back…” I muttered.

“Gerard…” Mikey sighed. “Think about it.”

“No, I know exactly what he’s gonna do, he’s going to…going to…” I couldn’t bring myself to say it but Mikey knew what I was getting at. “He’s then going to hold him hostage for me until I…I give myself up.”

“Well you’re not going to give yourself up.” Bob snarled. “We’ve gone too fucking far and risked too fucking much to let you give up now.”

“But it’s Frank.”

“Gerard, remember what happened last time someone tried to take on the boss.” Bob reminded me. “They fucking _died_.”

“I’d rather die than have any of you put through that shit…especially Frank…he didn’t ask to be dragged into this…”

“But he did agree when given the option to get out whilst he could.”

He had a point. My chest ached when I thought of what they could be doing to Frank at that very moment.

“I’m getting him back.” I declared. “Somehow, someway, I’m getting him back.”


	15. Chapter 15

**Frank’s P.O.V**

I woke up in a small room. It was pretty much a prison cell; bare grey walls, an iron door with a slot – which was currently closed – for food, a hard wooden framed bed. Nothing else.

My head hurt like crazy, my gun was gone, I was confused. Where the fuck was I?

“Hello?” I called stupidly.

“…ah…you’re awake.” A chilling voice came from nowhere.

“…yes…”

“Oh he _will_ be pleased.”

The slot in the door opened, I cautiously made my way to it, a pair of wild blue eyes peered through at me.

“Who is ‘he’?”

“…you’ll met him soon enough.”

The slot closed harshly, I couldn’t get the image of those eyes out of my head, they were somewhat disturbingly blue.

I sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity before I heard yells and muttering from the door, the slot opened and a different, lower and calmer voice rang though.

“You’re Frank, correct?”

“…I might be”

“Yes or no.”

“…no.” I lied. “I’m Fun Ghoul.”

A snort, followed by another round of mutterings. “Party Poison’s lover?”

My blood froze, they knew of us…of _us_. “…you could say that.”

The door opened, two men stood in the new space, one with long straggly blond hair and a passive expression – much like Mikey’s – the other with wide eyes and shorter, what seemed to be brown, hair gelled into a mohawk.

“…Go get Armstrong.” The taller one commanded, the crazier-looking of the two nodded and disappeared, leaving me with the eerily quiet tall one.

“…Armstrong huh?” I asked, trying to assess this situation I had found myself in. “And you are?”

“Dirnt.”

“Uh-huh…and the other?”

“Cool.”

I gathered these were either codenames or simply last names, that there were three of them and that this ‘Armstrong’ guy was the leader.

“So…why am I here?”

He snorted, “You’ll get what answers you are entitled to.”

I was about to question this when ‘cool’ returned followed by a man with ruffled black hair and a blissed-out expression.

“So…this is the piece of shit that got Party Poison in a whole heap of trouble eh?” he sighed, stepping towards me. “The piece of shit that we got told to ‘acquire’.”

“What’s it to you?” I growled, realising my error when he glared at me.

“This shit thinks he has a right to question me…hah.”

“Well it’s common courtesy to at least tell your victims what they’ve done to deserve being kidnapped.”

“Not really.”

“Armstrong…this kid isn’t ours to toy with…” Dirnt sighed. “Just tell him what we need to tell him.”

The leader laughed, it was a chilling laugh that set my nerves on edge, how I wished I stood a chance against him in unarmed combat…but that would be foolish. If there’s one thing I knew about being in this situation it was to comply until you have a full picture; then unleash hell.

“Okay then, what do you wanna know kid? You get five questions so pick wisely.”

“Who are you people?” I asked.

“We’re an elite group of…how to put it…guards.” Armstrong grinned. “One down, four to go.”

“Who do you work for?”

“Tsk, you’ll know him by ‘boss’ or ‘that asshole’.”

“Where are we?”

“HQ. Not saying where though.”

“…what does your boss want with me?”

Armstrong’s grin faded and he frowned at me. “Well, it’s not _you_ he wants. It’s your lover.”

“Why?”

“Unfinished business. Oh look that’s your five questions up. Hope you have a nice day.”

“Wait-”

“Nope!” He strode out of the cell and slammed the door shut, I heard the bolt slide into place and then silence fell.

He wanted Gerard. He wanted to finish what he started, he wanted Gerard begging for his life or more accurately _my_ life in exchange for his. The very thought if it made me feel sick to my stomach.

**~*~  
Gerard’s P.O.V**

“Guns?” I asked.

“Check.” Bob answered.

“Ammo?”

“Check.”

“Radios?”

“Check.”

“Bulletproof vests?”

“Check.”

“Sanity?”

Bob looked at me with an incredulous expression. “Since when did we have sanity?”

“Nevermind then.”

The van was on its last legs, it would survive driving into HQ and that was it, maybe withstand being a shield but nothing else.

“…so…I guess it’s do or die time.” Ray murmured.

“Yep. Get Frank back or die trying.” I sighed, loading my trusty gun with bullets. “It’s my fault he’s in there and it’s my duty to get him back.”

“But don’t forget.” Mikey interrupted, strapping a bulletproof vest on. “You’re not going in alone.”

“I know, but when it comes down to it…I’m the one he wants…not you…if I’m prepared to give myself up without hassle then you won’t come to harm.”

“You’re not giving up for fuck’s sake!” Bob exclaimed, slapping the back of my head. “You’re going to distract the bastard whilst Mikey and Ray bust Frank out.”

I rubbed my sore head. “Yeah…but you know…if something happens-”

“Gerard stop thinking like that for two seconds…sheesh.” Ray sighed.

I nodded, I wasn’t really alone in this…I had the only family I had really known for the past few years around me, we lived together, fought together and god dammit we were probably gonna die together today.

“Mikey, I love you, okay?” I said, clutching my brother’s arm as we went about packing the van up.

“…love you too Gee. Now let’s get on with getting Frank back.” He replied, his passive-persona faulting.

I smiled, it was a false smile given the circumstances but it made me feel a little better. The van rumbled into life and we headed across the desert of Mexico towards the isolated HQ. My chest felt tight but adrenaline coursed through my veins as we soared over dusty ground. The air in the van was hot and heavy, sweat rolled off all of us in the thick padding of the vests, the tension was worse though, we were practically serving ourselves up to the boss and wouldn’t be able to come away the same…if at all.

**~*~  
Frank’s P.O.V**

I didn’t know how long I had been in this cell, I had been fed a few times…if you could call dried bread and water being fed. The door opened, Cool stood there with his wild eyes and maniacal grin, my body was too weak to resist against his hold but I didn’t go quietly.

I was still snarling profanities when I got passed over to Armstrong, he seemed way too happy to be simply dragging me to a different cell.

“Quiet you little shit.” He growled, locking my arms behind me and shoving me forward. “The boss hates it when you’re loud.”

My brain rattled through what this could mean, was I about to be killed? No he still needed me to flush out Gerard, but then again Gerard wouldn’t know if I was dead would he? All thoughts stopped as I was shoved into a room, it was as big as a soccer pitch, a platform struck out of the white marble flooring and stretched towards the high ceiling. On the platform was a throne, a man sat staring curiously at us as I was forced forwards to the steps where Armstrong shoved me to kneel.

“Your grace.” He said, his voice sickly sweet. “I have brought the shi- I mean…the bargaining chip to get Gerard Way back to you.”

The man made a small noise of approval. “Very well…” he said slowly, his voice low and calm. “Let him stand.”

I was hauled up to stand, I could pick out features of his face now; he was bald for starters, his eyes piercing into mine, he wore a plain white suit and many rings adorned his fingers. He smirked as our eyes met, I glared at him as Armstrong still had my arms locked behind me.

“Well…you must be Frank.” He declared. “I can tell you’re the one who spoke back at me on the phone.”

“…your point?” I snarled.

“I wouldn’t be too feisty Frank, your days are numbered. Even if Gerard ends up in my presence again…you’re disposable boy.”

“Like I believe that.”

“Oh we _do_ have an attitude problem don’t we?” he laughed. “Maybe Armstrong can rectify that hmm?”

I heard him snigger behind me. “With pleasure my grace.”

I was then dragged into a room with a chair, I was tied into it, a tv was wheeled in with a dvd player.

“OH you’re gonna enjoy this _Frankie_.” Armstrong declared, showing me the disk he was about to put in. “You’re gonna enjoy this a lot.”

The tv buzzed before the picture focused, all that was on screen was a bed. Two voices became jumbled together but I recognised one of them instantly.

“ _We…we don’t have…I don’t…I haven’t…_ ” it was Gerard’s drunk voice, pained, but it was Gerard alright.

“ _Oh come now…I know you want to._ ” The boss’ voice.

“ _N-No…no please…_ ”

Realisation hit me. I was about to watch Gerard getting raped. And I couldn’t do anything about it.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slightly edited this chapter - just one or two lines - so if you're a returning reader then you have that to look forward to!

**Gerard’s P.O.V**

We rolled up to the gates, the guard barely gave us a second glance as he let us through. The rows of buildings which looked like aircraft hangers were a familiar sight, the impressive castle-like structure that was the main building loomed over them. We just had to get there without being caught.

Bob drove the van into a servicing depot and we bailed out, taking everything with us. We didn’t exactly look that out of the ordinary in comparison to the crowds of ‘soldiers’ around us, we were a little paranoid though. No-one here had seen us in nearly three years, I hardly remembered the layout of the site myself.

“There’s the tunnel that’ll dump us out in the courtyard.” Mikey hissed, pointing to the alleyway between two of the hangers. “That’ll be our best bet.”

“Got it.” I acknowledged, scouting the area for any familiar faces. When I could see none I beckoned them to follow me down into the sewer that would get us close to where Frank was being held, we could then split up; Bob and I would head off to find the boss whilst Ray and Mikey set on busting Frank out. Once Frank was in safe hands they would use one of the sewers to get out of the area and onto the highway used by truckers to wait for Bob to catch up. I hadn’t told them that I wasn’t intending on joining them, the boss wouldn’t let me go so easily, especially when he learns Frank’s escaped.

“Gee…you’re sure you know what you’re doing?” Mikey asked.

“Yes.”

“Sure?”

“Yes Mikey, now be quiet…you’ll attract unwanted attention.”

We got to the relevant ladder and ascended, ending up in the courtyard as proposed. We split off then, Bob and I broke into one of the corridors without too much hassle, there weren’t as many guards as I thought there would be which somewhat unsettled me.

When we did come across some guards they were easy to dispose of, Bob was sharing my concern for how easily this task seemed. There was a reason that these halls were quiet…they wanted me to get to the boss…they wanted me there with him. I couldn’t bring myself to say it though.

“Bob…”

“No Gerard.”

“Bob just go and find Ray and Mikey…”

“No, I’m not leaving you alone.”

“Please…”

“No, I know you have no urge to fight him, you’re going to give up aren’t you?”

“I…”

“No. I’m staying with you Gerard, I haven’t stood by you all this time just to watch you sacrifice yourself.”

I had never known Bob to be so caring, it certainly put a spin on all the time we had spent together.

“…okay.” I sighed. “Let’s go then.”

**~*~  
Frank’s P.O.V**

I couldn’t get the images out of my head. Or the sounds. Gerard’s desperate pleas for mercy as…I didn’t want to think about it. I was dragged back before the boss and I complied for once.

“All better?” he asked, a smirk stretching across his face. “I thought so.” He said when I didn’t reply.

“Wh-what did that achieve?” I snarled. “So you showed me what you did to him, that doesn’t prove anything other than how cowardly you are!” my rage and disgust at him as building, my own life wasn’t important, if I was so disposable then I was done for anyway when Gerard got here.

“It proved that you care about him, you wouldn’t be so furious right now.”

“So?”

“Shut up shit” Armstrong snarled.

“Billie.” The boss sighed. “He’s not a shit. His name is Frank Iero.”

Billie…Billie Armstrong…

“I thought we only wanted Gerard, why waste time talking to this piece of crap?” Billie asked, shoving me to the ground and kicking me.

“Are you questioning my leadership again? Remember what happened last time?”

“Gonna pump me full of drugs again? Make me brain dead again? Your pathetic soul-less servant?”

“Enough.” The boss shouted. Billie went abruptly silent. “You will not question my leadership again. Understand?”

“…yes.” Billie muttered, giving the ground a filthy look.

“You are relieved of duty for now. Call Dirnt and Cool in to replace you and then retire. You will receive punishment at another time.”

With a mutter and a half-hearted bow he left, slamming the door shut only for it to be opened a few seconds later by Cool, Dirnt followed him in and stood me back up but said nothing to either me or the boss.

“Okay…where was I?” The boss asked. “Oh yes, so did you enjoy it? Watching him being…pleasured?”

“You sick bastard.” I muttered.

“Just because he’d never let you do the same…”

“Because you fucking traumatised him!”

“Oh do come off of it.”

“No, he was fucking torn when he told me, he told me everything! How you blackmailed him, how you tortured other groups, how you really are a sick fucker!”

He laughed. “Oh this is going to be more fun than I anticipated.” I glared at him, he drew a knife from a pocket and stood up. “Hold him still now.”

I felt the grip on me tighten as I was forced to stand, he slowly walked down to me, knife poised to slice my skin.

Suddenly the doors slammed open. He looked up with confusion but soon a smirk spread across his face again.

“Ah…how nice of you to join us. I assume your older brother sent you to bust dear Frankie out huh?”

I heard grunts and two bodies being dumped on the floor, I was turned around so I could see. Mikey and Ray were both on their knees, hands tied, faces bloodied.

“Mi-key…” I uttered, I was silenced quickly by Dirnt’s vice-like grip on my neck.

“Hush now Frankie…there is much to be done before Gerard arrives, I have to make you look more presentable.” Boss said slowly, dragging the knife lightly across my cheek, cutting a thin slit in my skin, blood trickled down onto my neck.

“Fucker…” I muttered.

**~*~  
Gerard’s P.O.V**

Mikey’s radio had gone dead, Ray’s too. We were convinced that they had been captured, which made my blood boil and also freeze. I now _had_ to give myself up to save _all_ of them.

“Try them again.” I ordered Bob as I disposed of another guard.

“They’re both unresponsive Gerard.” Bob repeated for the fifth time.

My gun was out of ammo, I reloaded as we walked along what must’ve been the last corridor between us and the boss; a set of huge white doors beckoned us. One last guard stood in our way. He saw us and slowly walked towards us, I was about to fire when he called to us;

“Ah Gerard…you’re late, the party’s already started.” He declared, something in his voice was familiar.

“…and you are?”

“Billie, Billie Joe Armstrong.”

“Gee…that’s the guy who tried to kill the boss…the one…who should be dead.”

“Why aren’t you dead?” I asked. “No-one’s heard from you since you tried to-”

“Yeah yeah I know.” He replied, getting close enough to not have to shout at us. “The thing is…we got captured…and well drugged and by the time we knew what was happening it was too late…Mike and Tre were brainwashed and…well now we’re the personal guards for sir Ass.”

“…don’t trust him.” Bob muttered.

“Where’s Frank?” I asked, lowering my gun. I stared at him, he stared back.

“In there.” He said, pointing to the door. “Your brother too.”

“Billie?”

“Yes?”

“…do you still want to kill him?”

“…yes.”

“…help me save Frank and I’ll help you bring him down.”

“…sounds like a deal.”

“Gerard!”

“Bob now is not the time.” I sighed.

“…Bob…I know it must seem strange to you…” Billie calmly said. “But I still have an immense hatred for this guy…he’s drugged my two best friends and is using them against me…he’s tortured way too many people for me to stomach the guilt…I want to put things right once and for all.”

“…fine.” Bob muttered.

“What are we waiting for then?” Billie asked. “Come on.”

We walked to the doors, I could hear Frank’s pained yells and sighed heavily, tightening the grip on my gun and locking it into position. I looked to Bob who nodded, Billie blinked slowly and flung the doors open.

The look in the boss’ eyes as he realised I was here changed from deranged sadist to determined glee. He dropped the knife that was carving Frank’s skin like a jack-o-lantern and clasped his hands together.

“Well…well…well…what do we have here?” He asked slowly. “Have you turned against me Billie?”

“In a way.” Billie replied.

“I see you’ve made it here Gerard.”

“Yes. Now let Frank go.” I spat.

With a shrug he gestured for the guard – who I was told by Billie was in fact Mike Dirnt – to release Frank, his body sank to the ground in a grunt, I spotted Mikey and Ray being guarded by another guard – Tre Cool – I saw Bob slightly edge towards them but stopped when the boss spoke again.

“I showed Frank our little…movie…” he grinned. “Fond memories there Gerard.”

I fought to contain my rage, Billie whispered an apology but didn’t say anything else.

“Care to tell Frank why you never let him make love to you?”

My face flushed red…how did he know?

“…you fucker…” I muttered. “You know _why_.”

“I enjoyed that night Gerard…I do wonder though…” he smirked. “I wonder if it runs in the family…”

“Lay a finger on Mikey and I’ll kill you.” I snarled, gripping the gun in my hands.

“Challenge accepted.”

He started walking towards Mikey, my mind was a jumble, I could save Frank whilst he was unguarded but I’d sacrifice Mikey. I looked to Billie, he nodded and ran towards Frank, I turned to the boss and fired rapidly, the bullets bounced off his white suit with little more than a dull crack. He paused briefly but continued, I ran at him, discarding my gun and tackling him away from my brother.

“Gerard!” Mikey shouted as my head collided with the marble floor. I woozily sat up and started punching the boss’s face, Tre scrambled around and pulled me off, my fist stuck his forehead and he went out cold. I felt a knife press against me from inside of one of my pockets, I pulled it out and was poised to slice the bastard open when out of nowhere about fifty guards surrounded us, guns ready to fire.

Mikey and Ray had been released by Bob, Billie was fending off his own best friend to protect Frank, I could tell he was trying to pull the ‘old Mike’ out of the drugged up body. I ran towards him but was thrown away and promptly skidded along the floor; coming to a rest at Mikey’s feet. He dragged me to my feet and planted another knife in my hand.

“I got your back Gee.” He said as bullets rang out around us, Bob and Ray took it upon themselves to take out as many guards as possible, Mikey and I dodged bullets as the boss rose to his feet and spotted us.

“Oh boys…you’ve done it now.” He said, unveiling a coiled whip. “You do realise you’re fighting a losing battle right?”

“I promised to save Frank or die trying.” I replied over the gunfire, stalking towards him. “And that’s what I intend to do.”

I heard a crack as Billie slapped Mike, the taller man stumbled backwards and shook his head from the last of the drugs. He looked up confused at Billie.

“Get yourself together Mike, it’s time for round two.” Billie shouted. “Get Tre up and kill that bastard.”

My attention was drawn back to Mikey as he dodged the whip, it whirled around us like a serpent, I deflected its harsh impact with the blade of my knife and took the opportunity to lunge at him. Mikey took this same opportunity, we got him to the ground but he was too strong and threw me off, sending me crashing into Tre, he caught me and steadied us.

“Heard you needed some assistance.” He remarked, putting me back on my feet. “We got you covered.”

I looked to see Mike helping my brother off the floor, I nodded to Tre who pulled out an impressive machete.

“Where the hell?”

“We all have one.” He smugly replied, his wild eyes lighting up.

A round of gunfire spooked me back into the task at hand, I turned my own blade around in my hand, Mikey recovering his composure quickly and at my side again, Tre and Mike joining the ‘party’ as it were.

“And now you two are in on this huh?” The boss smirked, he had a wound above his eye and it was bleeding. “Don’t expect me to show you mercy.”

All of a sudden Tre let out what could only be described as a loud battle-cry and ran at him, machete raised and a wild look in his eyes that will be burned into my mind for eternity. Mike quickly followed suit only with less yelling, I looked at my brother who shrugged and lunged too.

It was a mess of metal and blood from both sides, the ever-loud gunfire died as Ray and Bob finished disposing of the guards, Ray then flew to Frank’s side as Billie battled the last guard still after Frank’s blood. Bob squeezed my shoulder as he reached me, I was weighing up my options when everyone drew back to reveal the boss having pinned Mikey down, gun to his forehead and a dark look in his eyes.

“Back off or the kid gets it!” he snarled. Mike and Tre did that, shooting worrying glances at me. I tightened my grip on my knife.

Billie came running over and nudged my arm. “You distract him, I’ll take him out from behind.” He whispered.

I looked at him, reading his intentions, he seemed truthful and he _had_ protected Frank as best he could.

“Okay.”

He nodded and back away, collecting his own machete as he walked around to read the situation.

“So what would you want with me anyway?” I asked, piercing the silence. I could tell Mikey was scared shitless beneath the madman.

“…Gerard you have potential.” He growled. “The potential to change things. I sent you to kill the governor for a reason, it was a test. A test of leadership, a test of your willingness to perform well.”

“So what was your intention? To make me like you?” I asked, standing in front of him. “Answer me you coward. I deserve answers.”

“You deserve nothing.” He spat, pressing the gun down onto Mikey. “You betrayed my trust in you, the care I took with you, I had to break you to test you.”

“You _raped_ me to test me?!” I exploded, tears threatening to fall as the memories came back.

“It was necessary. You’re not the only one.”

“…you worthless piece of shit. Your morals are wrong, you’re a sadist…all those people we were ordered to kill? What was the point?”

He laughed, “See, the question isn't 'why do I order you to kill people?', the question is 'why I don't I order you to kill  _everybody_?'. Y'know like a suicide attack...I decide who  _dies_ , but mostly, I decide who  _lives_. I'm like...  _God_. It takes a special kind of person to do that Gerard and I thought you had it in you...I guess not!”

Before I could say anything in reply I had launched my knife at him in anger and frustration, it missed but it spooked him enough for his gun to leave my brother’s head, Billie took this opportunity to strike. It was a bloody encounter.

After assuring he was dead I rushed over to Frank, he was barely still with us, Ray had used what little material was available to patch up the serious knife wounds but he was still bleeding.

“G-Gerard…” he whispered, reaching for me.

“Frankie…oh my precious Frankie…” I replied, clutching his face close to mine. “It’ll be okay…I promise…it’ll be okay.”

Tre and Mike rushed to find some kind of help, Billie stood off to the side as the rest of the guys sat around, Frank didn’t look like he was going to survive this.

“I’m sorry Gee…” he coughed. “I just…I just..”

I put a finger to his lips. “Save your strength…Mike and Tre are finding help.”

“Who?”

“The two guards.” Billie interrupted. “We were drugged out of our minds Frank…we’re…I’m sorry we did this to you.” He bowed his head.

“…I don’t blame you…”

“Frankie don’t quit on me…” I pleaded as he began closing his eyes. “Frankie!”

“Gerard…”

“Please don’t…stay awake Frankie!”

“Gee..I…I love you…”


	17. Chapter 17

**~ A few weeks later ~**

**Gerard’s P.O.V  
  
**

He still hadn’t woken up…days and nights by his side in the infirmary of HQ had lost all meaning.  Mikey and Ray had been seen to, Bob was fixing the van as a distraction. Mike and Tre were trying to take the organisation apart peacefully and ensure everyone’s safety.

Billie stayed with me. He stayed with me every day by Frank’s side. He apologised more times than I can count, none of it made the fact Frank was in a coma any better.

“Gerard…we have to be realistic.” He sighed, looking out the window at the bustling courtyard as weapons and armour were packed up into crates to be sold. “In the next two weeks this place is gonna be deserted, if Frank doesn’t wake up by then…well…he’ll have to be transferred to a hospital…and they’ll start asking questions.”

“I know Billie.”

“…then they’ll realise he’s the missing kid from Jersey…and charge you for kidnap…and probably murder if they figure out it was you who killed all those people.”

“I know…”

“I mean…I don’t know what we’re gonna do once we’re done…probably emigrate actually…Europe’s nice.”

“…can we come with you? Or…could you at least take the others? Take Mikey, Ray and Bob?”

He looked at me and smiled weakly. “If they want to…then yes.”

“Thanks.”

“I’m gonna go see what Tre and Mike are up to, you’ll be alright on your own?”

I nodded, he gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze as he left. I took Frank’s hand in my own and squeezed it, willing for him to wake up once again.

I fell asleep again at his side, I woke up at four in the morning by my hand feeling like all the blood was being squeezed out of it. I turned the light on and saw that Frank’s eyebrows were furrowed together in concentration, I looked to our hands clasped together, he was turning my fingers white.

“Frankie?” I asked, the pressure released. “Frankie can you hear me?”

His lips moved as if he was trying to speak.

“Frankie, I’m right here.”

“…Ge…Ger..” he barely breathed.

“Frankie…” I whispered back, resting my forehead on his chest.

“…Gerard…” a faint whisper came from him. I bolted upright and strained to hear it again.

“Frankie…please…I’m here…”

“Gerard..”

An agonising half an hour passed before another sound came from him, I was at my wits end by now.

“Gerard!” He shouted, bolting upright and scaring the living shit out of me.

“Frankie?” I replied, watching his confused head whip round as he took in his surroundings.

“Gerard!” he grinned.

“Frankie!” I cried, drawing him into a hug.

We sat there and sobbed into each other for what seemed like hours. Billie came back when it started getting light out and found us still wrapped tightly in each other’s arms. He smiled and called out to anyone who was listening that Frank was alive.

**~*~**

“Got everything? I asked Frank, he smiled at me and kissed my cheek.

“Yep, everything I need anyway.”

I looked to my brother, he smiled and nodded. Ray gave a thumbs up and Bob, well, was Bob and grumbled something about us being late.

“What about you guys?” I asked.

“We’re good to go Gee.” Billie replied. “Mike and Tre are just loading it all into the truck and then we can get out of here.”

I smiled. We were finally done with this crazy life, ready to start a new one in a different country. We didn’t care where we ended up, be it Europe or not, we were just glad to be finally free from the clutches of that madman.

“We’re gonna miss the boat Gerard.” Bob sighed.

“Hold your fucking horses Bob.” I remarked. “We have hours yet.”

A call from the only truck left in the compound signalled it was time to leave. We started getting into the truck when Mikey paused and looked back at the deserted grounds.

“Come on Mikes.” I called.

“One second.” He murmured before taking off towards the hangers.

**Mikey’s POV**

“Hey Pete.” I whispered, it surprised me that I knew where exactly they had buried them. They never marked the graves but you knew they were just littered around the site. Pete and his gang were between hangers five and six.

“Patrick, Joe, Andy…we finally got out. Obviously you guys enjoyed it but we sure as hell didn’t.”

I felt tears pricked at my eyes. “I’m sorry you were murdered ruthlessly. I didn’t want to see it. I remember it so vividly, the screams, the terror on your faces. I didn’t want it to end like this.”

I knelt down, placing my hand on the dusty ground.

“At least it’s all over, no-one else has to suffer anymore. You can rest in peace guys…well…once we anonymously tip off the FBI. You’ll at least be put back on American soil…”

“And you know, I’m glad he’s dead. I’m also kinda glad he ordered us to kill Frank, cause if we hadn’t of kidnapped him instead…well…I wouldn’t be here now, about to leave for Europe, to be able to live a free life. Gerard’s finally happy. I know you’d be happy too if you were still here.”

“So I guess what I’m saying is, thanks for everything you taught us and…rest in peace.” I mumbled, standing up and turning to walk away.

“Goodbye.”

**~*~**

**Gerard’s POV**

“Europe’s gonna be awesome!” Frank hollered as we set our eyes on the cruise ship. “I can’t fucking wait!”

“Calm your shit little dude.” Tre remarked.

I exchanged glances with Billie, we laughed and started boarding the ship. Once we were all settled on board we made our way up to the bow, all eight of us. Frank insisted on re-enacting the scene from Titanic, I didn’t mind.

“I’m flying Gee!” he giggled.

I laughed as his eyes lit up like the sun sparkling off the waves. I pulled him back and kissed him.

“I love you Frankie.” I said.

“I love you too Gerard.”

“Get a room!” Bob called from one of the deck chairs.

We all laughed. Some things never changed, but thankfully some did. We were finally free, finally happy, finally together, like one big – albeit slightly dysfunctional – family. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that's the end guys, I hope that there weren't too many mistakes and that you enjoyed reading!


End file.
